


Paper Heart

by ReaperofLykos



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Long, Post-Canon, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:54:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 122,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24820408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaperofLykos/pseuds/ReaperofLykos
Summary: After the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto Uzumaki's hard-won peace has held together for nearly fifty years. For most ninja, the only world they've ever known has been this new one of peacetime, maintained by the iron grip of the Shinobi Union.Kame Hakiara, a genin of the Hidden Sand, was born in this peaceful world, but raised on tales of war, of Naruto and Sasuke and all the great ninja who came before him. When the cracks begin to spread and the embers of war begin to rekindle, it will test whether he is of the same mettle as the heroes he so idolized, and challenge his faith in their ideals.





	1. The Prodigy

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! This story is my own take on what a sequel to Naruto should have looked like, and I will do my damndest to avoid actively contradicting (Naruto) canon at any point. That said, if you notice any points where I did, read anything you agreed/disagreed with, or have any feedback at all, I'd love to hear all of it! I try to update twice a week, every Wednesday and Friday, barring any outstanding circumstances.

**Part I | Puppet Boy**

* * *

_The restoration of the Shinobi Union Archives has been slow going. It's strange to think that, at one point, the tiny remnants I've hunted down in abandoned villages and ruined fortresses across the world could have all been consolidated in one place. The Shinobi Union had the greatest hoard of knowledge the world had ever seen, and despite existing in a world where knowledge is power, they fell to ruin in what should have been their prime._

_In the endless notes and missives and profiles, I'd hoped to find some greater insights into the mistakes they made that could allow such disaster to occur._ _Instead, all I've found are memories of a time before the world fell apart._

_\- Kame Hakiara, 10 A5_

* * *

"Kame Hakiara, pass with a score of ninety-eight out of a hundred," the teacher said, nodding to Kame as he walked down the row and towards the door. "It's been a pleasure teaching you."

"Thank you." Kame gave the man one last respectful nod, then stepped out through the side door, into the sandy ground of the Sunagakure Shinobi Academy's courtyard. Penned in on all four sides by the walls of the academy itself, the small yard was where he'd eaten most of his lunches for the last four years- but now, it was the site of his next test. All of the tables had been cleared away and benches moved to make room for a long line of targets and corresponding numbered spaces on the other side of the yard, each of which had ten kunai and ten shuriken laid on them.

Kame took his position on the number one at the furthest corner of the yard, testing the weight of the provided weapons to make sure they were standard issue. _Two more exams_ , he thought to himself, _and then I'm officially a genin of the Hidden Sand_. The genjutsu test had been relatively simple- just releasing the hallucinatory genjutsu that the instructor laid on him, which he'd done successfully. Next came the taijutsu test, which had been a little trickier but not particularly problematic, and then the written test on ninja history and chakra theory, which he'd finished before anyone else in his class and with an excellent score to boot.

As more and more students filed out of the written test classroom, the weapons teacher, Nagano, dropped down into the courtyard and scanned the assembled applicants. Nagano was by all appearances a prototypical Sand shinobi, clad in standard durable clothing underneath his sand chunin vest. However, Kame had learned from experience over the last four years that the man demonstrated his loyalty through unusual mediums: high standards and tough love to anyone under his tutelage.

Suddenly, he felt an odd urge to look up and obeyed it, glancing towards a third-story window looking down on the courtyard. There he saw a flash of blurry white motion, but it was gone almost immediately and he was left mildly confused. _Who would-_

His curiosity was interrupted when, now that apparently everyone who would be passing the written test had done so already, Nagano began barking out instructions: "Everyone listen up! This is your final exam for weapons use, and I think that you can probably figure out what it is based on what's sitting right in front of you." _We're to demonstrate a minimum accuracy level_ , Kame reasoned, all traces of the white blur now gone from his mind. Each of the tests up to this point had been pass-or-fail and weeded out a few unskilled students each, so it stood to reason that this one would be the same. The targets on the far wall, perhaps ten meters away, were large wooden ones suspended by nails, each a meter wide and with three concentric circles around a bullseye.

"On the other hand, some of you are complete idiots, so I'm gonna explain it anyway!" Nagano pointed towards the targets. "You sorry lot are to throw ten consecutive shuriken towards those targets. If you can get at least eight of them to stick in the inner ring, you pass, and if you can't, you fail! I can pass or fail you on my own, regardless of the rules, so if you're planning to slide by on a technicality then get a new plan."

The line of twenty or so students readied themselves to throw their shuriken, and on his shout of "Go!" the throws began. Kame steadied his breathing, assumed the stance that was well-written into his memory, and narrowed his vision in on the target before releasing with a flick of his wrist. The shuriken whizzed forward and sank into the very edge of the three-inch-radius bullseye. He readied another one, wound up, and repeated the process nine more times, ending up with nine bullseyes and one hit into the innermost ring.

He then leaned back into the wall and waited as the other students made their own attempts, glancing around in boredom until his focus was yanked back down to earth by Nagano's shouting: "Alright, now if you're looking at your unsatisfactory performance and finally realizing just how useless you actually are, I've got some good news. If you're sitting there glad that you got so lucky with your throws- and you know who you are- I've got some bad news: you're going again, this time with the kunai, and you need a total of sixteen-out-of-twenty combined!"

Kame picked up one of his own kunai and grabbed it by the hilt, weighing it one more time before launching it towards the target. Once there, it stabbed point-first into the wood and sank in a centimeter, nearly shaking free one of the less-secure shuriken. The next eight kunai went much the same way, seven more hitting the bullseye and one plunking into the inner ring. The last one, though, he got overconfident on and flung directly into one of his own shuriken, which it promptly bounced off of and missed the target completely.

Nagano strode over from his position behind the students to congratulate Kame: "Excellent! Exemplary work, Hakiara!" The teacher marked down the final results on a clipboard, continuing in a proud tone, "You pass the thrown weapons test with flying colors."

Kame cracked a smile; he'd managed to perform significantly above the passing requirements with seventeen bullseyes, two inner-ring hits, and one more that would have been a bullseye were it not for the shuriken in the way. "Thank you, Nagano-sensei. May I move on to the next test?" He'd left some interesting experiments at his home, and the sooner he finished with the academy graduation exam the sooner he'd get to finish them.

"No can do, kid, you gotta stay until the other students are finished. You can sit down over there for now." Nagano pointed towards one of the viewing benches behind the range and Kame complied, walking over to it and taking a seat.

 _Well, I guess if I can't move on, I might as well check out some of my competition_ , he reasoned. Looking at the other students, the majority of them were clearly average, but a few were noticeably unable to complete the requirements. _Which is strange,_ he thought, _because historically ninja have been held to much higher standards at much earlier ages._ In the decades of peace after the Fourth Shinobi World War, the ninja villages had less need of soldiers and so children had significantly more time to be... well, children. Kame, as well as most of his classmates, was now fourteen, the minimum age to graduate into a genin squad. _The ninja before had to pass these tests at a much younger age, but most of my classmates can't even do very well with all those extra years, huh?_

Although he could have named most of the students, there were a few that he didn't recognize by appearance- due to the education system in the Hidden Sand, students were placed with different kids for each of their classes in order to generate familiarity with all of the other students but to prevent any close friendships (at least until the genin teams were established). Despite this, he'd developed a repartee with a few of the other students, namely Tetsute Hasagi and Rakuyo Kuyanari. They shared the projectiles class and as the top three performers they'd developed a healthy little competition that soon became a friendship. Kame, who hadn't had many friends growing up, had gravitated towards the other two hard workers in his classes, and soon they would meet after hours to practice their jutsu or even just talk. Tetsute's short brown hair and eyes did little to distract from his ever-present smirk, but the few people who took offense at his attitude had quickly learned their lesson and left the burly boy alone.

Looking over at him, Kame noticed his rival had also managed seventeen bullseyes, but only a single inner-ring hit and one kunai that had ended up on the outer ring. He held his breath as the boy lined up his final throw, but released it in a sigh when he noticed the stance and alignment. As expected, Tetsute, like him, got cocky on his final toss and missed the target completely- still easily passing, but not cracking Kame's accomplishment. He appeared to have the same conversation with the teacher and then walked over and sat down next to Kame.

"Hey, bro, guess who just landed seventeen bullseyes?" Tetsute smirked and opened his arms wide in glory.

Kame laughed. "Me. And I managed two inner circles instead of one, so... you lose."

Tetsute's face fell and he narrowed his eyes. "Did you practice especially just to beat me?"

Kame kept his face bemused. "I don't need to practice especially to beat _you_."

"Oho…" Rakuyo walked up from their left, black ponytail bobbing as she stifled a laugh behind her hands, but unable to hide the amused sparkle in her hazel-green eyes. "You just gonna take that, Tetsute?"

Tetsute rolled his eyes, although there was a little glimmer of anger underneath at being humiliated in front of his schoolboy crush. "Whatever. I beat you at taijutsu, so we're even."

"Actually, I think I win this one, boys." Rakuyo held up all ten of her fingers. "All bullseyes. Feel free to bow in adoration now." Kame raised an eyebrow and Tetsute mock-bowed before shaking his head.

He appeared to count something on his fingers and then said, "So that puts Rakuyo at the top with first place in weapons and second place in taijutsu, and me in second with first place in taijutsu and third place in weapons. How's it feel to be the weakest link, huh, Kame?"

"You're forgetting the written test. I finished first, you second, and Rakuyo third; so now we're all tied up." Kame smiled. "I guess it all comes down to the ninjutsu test, huh?" Tetsute simply smiled and cracked his knuckles while Rakuyo stretched hers. "Well, may the best ninja wi-"

Kame was cut off by Nagano's voice ringing out across the courtyard, oddly gentler than normal: "Regardless of results, I'm proud of each and every one of you- _not_." On the last word, his tone went straight back into military drill sergeant and stayed there as he continued: "If you failed here, you're coming back for another year with yours truly where I do my damndest to keep you from sucking even harder than you already do. That means you; Naburo, Kekeno…" As the sensei listed off all of the failures, the usual suspects walked out, sulking or pretending not to care. All in all, Kame counted ten kids who were unable to pass, leaving ten more standing in the courtyard. However, the last of those ten names came as a mild surprise to Kame: "And Haku."

 _Haku?_ Kame searched his mind and couldn't remember a student named Haku. He knew most of his classmates' names by now, if not from seeing them then by hearing Tetsute or Rakuyo mention them. _How did I miss an entire person?_ As he searched his mind, his question was answered as a tall girl in a worn purple coat strode up to the teacher and started arguing with him. Curious, he detached himself from his two friends and drifted over, eavesdropping unobtrusively.

When he got a good look at her, his heart skipped a beat. She was striking, far prettier than he'd expected from someone theoretically forgettable enough for him to not even know about her existence, with deep purple hair and eyes of a bright white that he had no memory of ever seeing from any of the Sand's many clans and families. Her face was dejected as she talked at the teacher, getting more and more so as he got within earshot and listened closely.

Nagano's voice was stern. "I'm sorry, Haku, but you didn't meet the requirement."

"I…" She bit her lip, and Kame took the opportunity to glance over at the target, seeing eight mixed projectiles within the bullseye itself, seven more scattered about the inner ring, and one kunai sitting directly on the border between it and the middle ring. _Is he not giving her the benefit of the doubt on that one for some reason?_ Even odder, Haku appeared reluctant to defend herself or even make the very obvious argument that one of her kunai was halfway inside the boundaries. "You... you passed Genji, and he only hit fifteen, so-"

When Nagano responded, it was in a calmer tone for once. "Genji passed every damn test up 'til now, so I'm pretty sure that this time was just a fluke."

"But I didn't... I mean, I practiced until..." Haku trailed off, glancing at the target and then back at her teacher indecisively.

The compulsive part of Kame had him stepping up to them and speaking before the more rational half of his brain realized what was going on: "Wait, stop." Haku and Nagano both looked back, the latter with the stirrings of annoyance, but those faded as he recognized one of his star pupils. On the other hand, Haku's eyes widened in an oddly fearful reaction as she straightened up and turned to face him.

"What are you- is there something you want to say?" She seemed defensive. He made a mental note to watch how he talked to her.

"No, I'm here to, uh..." Now it was Kame's turn to trail off, as he blanked on the reason he'd even joined the conversation to begin with. _Why is this even any of my business?_ He contemplated the merits of just turning back around and whether that would only make him seem weirder, but some new implacable instinct at the back of his mind redirected him to stay and defend this growing enigma of a girl: "I have an idea, sir."

"Continue," said Nagano, seeming almost as confused as Haku.

"Well, one of those kunai is pretty much exactly on the line," Kame began, pointing towards the kunai in question, "But since it's halfway, I don't think calling it one way or the other seems fair. How about you just take it out and give her another chance to throw it from scratch?"

Nagano worked his jaw for a few long seconds, glancing from the oh-so-important kunai to Haku to Kame to the door that no doubt led to the ninjutsu testing room, finally landing on a decision with a drawn-out sigh. "Fine." He gestured towards the target and grumbled, "Go. Get this over with before I change my mind."

Haku's eyes, which had become deeply puzzled as Kame had laid out his suggestion, lit up as she tore off towards the target in a blur of purple _far_ faster than he'd thought she'd be capable of and returning with equal speed. He kept his expression measured, but inside he was only getting more bewildered by the second- _I know for a fact I'd remember a classmate that could move like that, or at least hear them mentioned_.

Once back behind the line, Haku glanced back at him briefly, but like before seemed to lose her nerve and drop her gaze to the ground before she turned around and (after a long pause to aim carefully) threw the kunai. This time, it zipped across the ten-meter gap and slammed into the target _hard_ , nearly three centimeters deep in the wood of the bullseye alonside eight of its fellows.

She smiled hesitantly, turning around and looking hopefully at Nagano, who seemed slightly annoyed for the briefest of moments before flattening his features back into their typical stern neutral expression. "You pass."

Haku shot an unreadable expression towards Kame before striding off towards the ninjutsu testing classroom. Nagano opened his mouth to say something else but then appeared to think better of it, shrugging and walking away. He muttered "I tried" under his breath, only adding to Kame's mounting confusion about what exactly was going on here.

 _Speaking of which_ , Kame blinked a few times, wondering _why the hell did I just help her? I've never really had any urge to help my classmates before,_ _so why now? What is it about her?_ He was still lost in thought when Rakuyo darted over and slapped him on the back: "What's the big idea running off like that? Why're you messing with Kodoku?"

"No, I just… Kodoku? I thought her name was Haku." He craved more information.

"She's a weird one... are you sure that you don't remember her? I feel like we've definitely talked about her before. She's in my taijutsu class and Tetsute's ninjutsu class, and apparently she can't even perform basic jutsu. I really don't understand what her problem is, she should've given up a long time ago." Rakuyo rolled her eyes. "Back when she first enrolled, she was decent at taijutsu, but pretty soon me and Tetsute showed her her place and now she's actually pretty pathetic. She doesn't even try to stand up for herself when people... well, whatever. Anyway, I don't know what she expects is gonna happen for her in the ninjutsu test."

Kame considered for a moment but then realized that they were late for the test in question. "Let's go, we don't want to fail by default."

"Heh, Tetsute would never let us hear the end of it." Rakuyo jogged off towards the classroom and he followed her inside, taking note of his surroundings being pretty much a smaller version of the same sandstone-walled classrooms he'd studied in for the last four years.

They walked in and took the only two available seats, so Rakuyo ended up next to Tetsute and Kame was forced to the back, sharing a desk with Miriki Kosuki, the pretty-boy of their age group. The vain prick was examining his nails and occasionally shaking a length of perfectly-kept dark hair out of his bright blue eyes, completely ignoring him as he sat down. _I can't believe Loverboy passed all of the tests leading up to this..._ Kame turned to glance at his classmate again, but was surprised to see two sky-blue eyes gazing intently at him. _What is he-_

His thoughts were cut off as the teacher looked around at all the students and then checked a list in his hands. "Students, this is your final test before you get the chance to become genin, and I daresay it is also the most important! Ninja are best known, and for good reason, for their mastery of the art of ninjutsu. Almost every rank chunin-or-higher ninja has a high level of competence with several complex ninjutsu, but as new genin you are only expected to be able to perform a few basic ones. The one we'll be testing today is the clone jutsu!"

The class broke down into whispering and muttering, but neither Kame nor Miriki were fazed by the announcement. Kame's clone jutsu was both reliable and convincing- he'd mastered it quickly and moved on to more challenging ones. He might even show off a little for this-

"Kame Hakiara! As the strongest ninjutsu user in the class, would you like to demonstrate?" The instructor looked at him and he smiled.

"Of course". He made his way down the aisle and to the front of the class.

"Feel free to use the jutsu whenever you'd like," the instructor directed him. Kame smiled and then made the correct hand signs before focusing his chakra. He felt the power whirl within him and ordered it, as directed by the hand signs, to form into being beside him. With perfect focus, he mirrored the chakra creation with his own chakra network and then released the jutsu. Standing beside him was an exact copy of himself, which he turned and shook hands with.

"Very good job, Kame, you may return. Full marks." The instructor marked his score down on the clipboard and gestured him to go back to his place, which he did, dismissing the clone and returning to his seat.

The other classmates all went, some creating imperfect clones but all of them at least managing something. The instructor graded harshly this year, refusing to give points to those who made clones that did not appear close enough in appearance to themselves. Miriki walked up and made a perfect clone on his turn, as did Rakuyo and Tetsute. Kame couldn't wait to form a team with the latter two, as soon as everyone finished their testing. As the classroom of eleven ninja students finished up, only Haku was left.

Once her name was called, she walked up slowly, head hung, and Kame flinched from his reverie when someone gently placed their hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Miriki looking at her sadly and speaking in a soft, obnoxiously harmonious voice: "She's not going to be able to do it. Not for lack of trying, but she's been incapable of it all year."

Kame frowned, turning back towards Haku's display. He looked on as she made the handsigns perfectly and channeled her chakra, but he didn't need any visual kekkeigenkai to see what was going on- she didn't have enough focus or chakra control, and the chakra she sent out to form the clone was simply dissipating. After a few seconds Tetsute laughed and he an unexpectedly powerful surge of empathy, especially as she responded by tilting her head downwards more and starting to straighten up.

Kame's odd impulse again pushed him and before he knew what he was doing he flashed through several handsigns and sent out his own chakra beside her, focusing it intently and managing to successfully cast two jutsu in unison- a combination clone and transformation jutsu spat out a copy of him disguised as a copy of her and made it look like she'd successfully, if a bit sloppily, made a clone of herself. He hadn't had her chakra network to model from, so it only looked somewhat like her, but the (apparently lucky) Genji Sanakishi had been passed despite making a clone that was slightly worse so Kame's should be up to par.

She jerked up and glanced beside her at the clone of herself, then looked around the room trying to mask her confusion. The instructor squinted at the clone and then at Haku, before looking up at the rest of the classroom, his eyes finally settling on Kame. He peered at his best student, and then back at the clone, and then appeared to consider briefly, but Kame already knew the outcome- they likely wouldn't fail their star pupil for something like this, and they probably didn't want to teach the crippled Haku for another year, so the logical outcome would be for them to simply let it go and pass her. _Hopefully_.

"Haku, you… pass. Go take your seat." She bit her lip again and darted back to her chair, so Kame dismissed the jutsu. _Wait,_ he thought with a touch of alarm, _what the hell did I just do? I barely even know her and now I'm helping her_ _cheat_ _to pass this test?_

Miriki beside him whispered, "Hey dude, nice one! Although, why would you help her- do you even know her?" Kame shrugged and sat back in his chair, as baffled as Miriki was about the matter. In fact, he was so focused on himself that he failed to notice his dark-haired classmate's hands releasing a jutsu of their own.

"Alright, class, if you're still in this room, you've shown acceptable levels of competence in every basic aspect of shinobi arts. Congratulations! You may now all come and receive your headbands, and carved onto the back of the metal you'll find your ninja identification numbers. The first number in that long string of them is your team number, which is also the classroom you will go to to meet with your squadmates tomorrow. As soon as you pick up your headband you are officially a genin of the Village Hidden in the Sand!" All nine of the remaining students walked up to the teacher to receive their headbands one after the other, and Kame winced at the scorching glare that the teacher gave him on his turn.

The room cleared out very quickly, after which Kame met up with Rakuyo and Tetsute outside. They all wore their headbands on their foreheads with big smiles on their faces. "We did it!" They shared an awkward three-way high-five. Maybe it wasn't rare for students to graduate the academy on their first attempt, but it definitely wasn't a minor achievement. While Kame had been confident that he'd pass while going into the test, it was still reassuring to know that he'd put the milestone behind him.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. "Uh, guys?" They turned and their faces fell somewhat, mirroring his own expression of worry.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"If they gave us our squad assignments, then that means we aren't choosing for ourselves, which means we might not be together…" he did his best to keep his voice hopeful, but in reality he was panicking a little bit. A ninja's squad was important, they'd be together for their entire careers and he didn't want to end up alone with two useless losers. He hadn't been present for the fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds' graduations, which meant that there was probably a large pool of possible ninja for him to end up on a team with.

He tried to remain confident despite the panic that he usually suffered when his larger plans went awry starting to set in. "No, I'm sure that they… well, I mean, we can check." He pulled off his own headband, flipped it over, and looked at it. It read: "Eight. Well, did you guys get eight?" He looked up hopefully at his only two friends, who slowly shook their heads.

"No, I got seven." Tetsute said apologetically.

"Hey! I got seven, too!" Rakuyo smiled at him. They high-fived again, elated to be on the same team after all. Kame tried to be happy for them.

"Wow, that's… really great, I guess…" he said, doing his best to hide the disappointment in his voice. They didn't even notice his suddenly depressed spirit and he walked away without another word. As he left the academy grounds, he noticed Haku walking off towards the wall of the city, head down and hands in her pockets. For some reason, he still couldn't remember a single thing about her- which was incredibly strange, given how amused Rakuyo had been by her. _She talked about it like it was an inside joke between us..._

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Kame made it home without a hitch, entering and immediately setting some water to boil. Both his parents were Sand shinobi and were out on missions at the moment, leaving him to take care of himself. This wasn't an uncommon situation; after he'd turned eleven they'd recommitted to their jobs as Land of Wind border security. In fact, they'd earned enough repute to be in the reinforcement corps, a special squad that rapidly moved around the border constantly to counter shifting threats and situations.

Kame's earlier years had been fairly isolated, in the tradition of the Heat Devil Village. Children there were raised purely within the clan and trained from a young age, but due to their clan's relative lack of other people he'd been kept from _all_ other children. His time had been filled with books and reading, and although he'd like to call it 'research', honesty demanded that he admit to himself that it was really just him obsessing over stories of famous ninja. He had very garbled memories of being resistant to ninja training at first, but that had all changed once he'd started to read accounts of historical ninja's exploits. Kame had fallen in love almost immediately with the tales of Gaara, Naruto, and Sasuke unleashing unbelievable powers to beat back terrible threats and save the world.

From that point until the present day, his dream had been to become a household name like them. He didn't just want to be a ninja, he wanted to be one of the great ones. To blaze his own path, despite not having a kekkeigenkai or a tailed beast sealed within him, and achieve the sort of lasting greatness that later generations would be learning about in _their_ history classes. His parents had been glad to teach him until age eleven, at which point they'd gotten their promotion and started rapidly moving all over the Land of Wind's border, shifting from town to town. That kind of constant movement wasn't the best for raising a child, much less a child trying to focus on their education, so they'd opted to leave him at home alone far more than most kids his age- which, to be fair, he didn't really mind. The peace and quiet gave him time to think and also to work on his paperbombs.

He'd found and decided a while ago that he had an affinity for the ninja tools, and quickly learned how to create and disarm them. Ever since, he'd been experimenting with different levels of power and area, along with trying to compress the runes for greater efficiency. So far, he'd managed to create not only an array of varyingly strong bombs, but also a few specialty ones like the flame-spreading one he'd dubbed a 'firebomb'. That one had required his fire release to work, but now it was a special edge in any fight he had- _or will be, once I get into an actual fight._ Due to the highly destructive nature of paperbombs, Kame had been ill-suited for the casual sparring matches that had been his only chance at fighting other shinobi so far.

He heard the water finish and made himself some instant noodles, taking them into his workshop (a shed outside that his parents had mandated he use after nearly blowing up his own room one too many times) and starting to experiment with trying to streamline the detonation process. Perhaps if he could infuse a wind-based change of nature while creating the explosive part of the seal, the detonation would become more forceful and less damaging. A concussive bomb could prove very useful for both non-lethal uses and also as a way to move things around. _Okay then, let's see what we can do with this,_ he thought as he dove in to work on using the new idea, and as his hands busied themselves with drawing up the paperbomb's seal, the familiar motions comforted him enough to bring his thoughts to a more positive tone: _Whoever I end up with, I'm sure I can make it work_.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4** (50 years after the Fourth Shinobi World War)

**Academy Exam Graduation Data: Kame Hakiara**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Seijo Namae) Notes: _Multiple nature transformations and excellent grasp of basic jutsu_

Genjutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Maindo Kuso) Notes: _Able to both dispel and cast at a passable level_

Taijutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Saitama Kenji) Notes: _Capable of holding_ _his own against most other students  
_\- Instructor (Nagano Tsukia) Notes: _Exceptional aim with thrown weapons_

Appearance: _Age fourteen._ _Normal height (5'5"), thin build, short and messy sandy-blond hair, grey eyes. Typically wears utilitarian and many-pocketed clothing underneath Sand genin vest._

Attitude: _Shows definite desire to excel but troubling resistance to work with other students less skilled than he is. Never disrespectful to teachers or in front of them, but also demonstrates dismissive behavior towards majority of his classmates._

History: _Comes from the_ _Hakiara clan, which is relatively new to the Hidden Sand (only fourth generation residents), and migrated to the Sand from the Heat Devil Village partially through their war with the Hidden Leaf. Due to clan traditions, Kame was raised in seclusion within his family, isolated from other children, until he entered the Sand Shinobi Academy. Immediately excelled due to extensive pre-academy training and natural drive, and graduated at the minimum age, fourteen._


	2. The Annoyance

Kame blinked his way back into the world of the waking, groaning as he pried himself off his worktable. He'd been more tired out than he thought by the stress of the graduation testing and must have fallen asleep at his station, which could have been bad. _I've r_ _eally got to pay better_ _attention, or_ _one of these days I'll blow myself up..._

Noticing that it was almost time to leave for the academy and his squad placements, he threw together a quick breakfast and hurried out the door. _Can't be the last one there, that's definitely a bad way to start things off with my team._ He jogged all the way there, fastening his headband on as he went and returning greetings from the occasional friendly neighbor until he finally arrived at the academy.

After striding in the open door and past all the other excited students, Kame froze when he saw Rakuyo and Tetsute chatting happily outside their own classroom. He briefly debated talking to them, but stopped when he saw them laughing and enjoying themselves without him. _Better not to twist the knife in deeper_ , he thought bitterly, _and at least let them be happy_.

Turning down the hall he saw the classroom sign on the right labeled 'Eight' and braced himself to meet his new teammates. Thinking hard, he decided that he probably wanted some of the more skilled upper age group ninja, honestly he didn't care specifically who as long as they were somewhat competent. _Whoever's up there listening to thi_ _s, please let me get some squadmates who are skilled ninja_ , he thought. _Actually, I can be the ninjutsu specialist of the squad… let them be decent taijutsu and genjutsu users, I guess._

Finally he got up the necessary confidence and pushed the door open to be confronted with...

An empty classroom.

Checking the clock, he saw that he was right on time- _So why isn't anybody here?_ he wondered. _I guess I might as well_ _take a seat._ He slid into a chair in the front row and absentmindedly pulled out a paperbomb, one of the ones he'd developed last night. The blast was now a burst of wind that had much greater concussive power, at the cost of any heat or flame whatsoever.

As his hands worked, an idea struck him- if he managed to make it into a paper airplane of sorts, then he could send it out on its own in special flight patterns and detonate it remotely. He became so wrapped up in his little project that he jumped at the sudden noise of the door opening.

Looking up, he saw a black-haired figure wearing a long white coat back into the room. "Sorry, babe, but I need to be getting to my important ninja training now!" Miriki Kosuki waved one last goodbye to the giggling girl in the hallway and then turned around to see Kame holding his head in his hands. "Oh, hey, Kame! How's it going, _new teammate_?"

Kame sent up a silent complaint to the gods' customer service line: _When I said a genjutsu specialist, I didn't mean this guy_. "Uh, hey there, Miriki, so… you're going to be on my team, huh? That's… great." He tried to hide his ramping disappointment at losing Tetsute and Rakuyo and getting the resident ladies' man as a replacement. Still, there might be hope in the last ninja on their team…

"Hey, don't write me off just yet, okay?"

Kame's head shot up as his eyes became confused. _How did Miriki know what I was thinking?_ "What? I'm not… I don't mean to offend you, it's just that you don't seem very powerful and in our shared classes you didn't demonstrate an aptitude for anything except genjutsu, which you also weren't particularly skilled at."

Miriki shrugged. "Eh, that's fair. However, you haven't seen me really try yet; you might be pleasantly surprised… anyway, do you know who our last member will be?" He also took a seat in the middle of the classroom. "Whoever they are, they're late."

With perfect timing, the door banged open and a girl strode through it hurriedly. Kame's jaw slackened and his eyes opened wide, his brain too busy registering the extreme irony of his situation. The kunoichi who walked in was mostly covered up by a dirty, worn-out purple coat, her face shaded by the hood, but the flash of her pale eyes was enough for Kame to identify her.

Miriki greeted her. "Haku! Wow, did we luck out today. We've got the strongest masters of each respective branch of jutsu on our squad!"

That was a very positive way to think about it. "Yeah, but you're awful at taijutsu, I'm mediocre at genjutsu, and she can _only_ do taijutsu."

Haku threw back her hood, but wouldn't meet his eyes. "I… I can handle myself."

A sudden little flare of competitiveness awakened inside him and he opened his mouth without thinking. "Just like you handled yourself at the ninjutsu test yesterday? I had to save you from flunking back to the academy for another year." He immediately regretted the words far more than he'd expected, feeling an unusually strong surge of shame for speaking harshly to her.

Haku looked taken aback and immediately started to issue a retort- but the words never left her, and she just looked back at the ground, finally responding in a quieter voice, "Thanks for that. But now… now that I'm out of there, I can succeed as a ninja, even if I don't have ninjutsu or genjutsu."

Kame frowned. "Or you could work with the team and we could make up for each others' shortcomings…?" he tossed out the peace offering and she quieted, shrugging her agreement and sitting down cross-legged on the floor at the front of the classroom.

"Now then, where's our squad leader? He's awfully late, this might be a bad sign about him…" Miriki complained, sighing and sitting back in his chair. "Maybe he just doesn't care enough to even show up?"

 _I guess that would make him your kind of person, eh_? Kame thought uncharitably. As much as Haku confused him, Miriki flat-out annoyed him, from his endless hitting on girls to his extremely unprofessional attitude towards almost everything. He might belong to an incredibly wealthy family, but that shouldn't excuse him from the same standards of conduct that everyone else conformed to.

"Nope!" The door that Haku had carefully closed behind herself was literally kicked off of its hinges in a burst of splintering wood, and a man staggered through it. His ruddy red hair was a disheveled mess, and his cheeks were covered with stubble, clearly in desperate need of shaving. His eyes, wild at first, dulled a bit as he bent over and panted for a good five seconds before speaking again in a slightly slurred voice: "You... you all're... what was I...?" he trailed off, before looking downcast. "Oh yeah, you're the new kids I have to babysi- I mean, teach."

Kame immediately straightened up and respectfully bowed to the man. "Deihaka-sensei! I'm honored to be on the team of such an important ninja." He was relatively new as a jonin, but climbed the ranks exceptionally quickly out of nowhere. After flying under the radar for years, at age thirty-one he'd ascended from genin to jonin in a few short weeks. _His jutsu specialty i_ s… Kame tried to remember... _Oh yeah, the magnet release, like the Third Kazekage._

Deihaka smiled faintly at the praise. "I'm glad that you've, uh, heard of me..." The three genin in the room turned to look at him as silence dragged on for more painful seconds, until he seemed to notice the situation and start talking again: "Right. You may be sand chunin now... wait, no, sand genin, but I'm still your superior and I have the right to send you back to the academy. Looking at you, I don't know if I wanna do this teacher thing..." Miriki opened his mouth to protest, but Deihaka just kept talking. "I'm giving you a chance to prove me wrong, though, so... follow me."

They walked out from the academy and Kame noticed that no other group had left their classroom. "I'm sorry, Deihaka-sensei, but why aren't any other groups doing this? Are we the only ones who performed unsatisfactorily?"

Deihaka didn't turn, but responded almost... shyly? "Don't worry 'bout it." _He's trying to act mysterious,_ Kame noticed, _but he's not a very good actor. Whatever the reason for this test is, it isn't to gauge our individual combat abilities._ They made it to the doors of the arena and stepped in to find it empty of any ninja. On the sandstone floor, there were scattered wooden structures and ninja tools, random at first glance, but as Kame looked closer there were far too many to be just left over from another group.

Haku took off her ragged, tattered coat to reveal an outfit comprised of a white collared top and a tight skirt, with purple bandages poking out onto her arms, legs, and midriff. Miriki was clad in his usual flowing white coat over an outfit that probably cost more than Kame's entire wardrobe. Kame swallowed his annoyance; he'd always harbored a tiny bit of disgust with people who didn't wear typical ninja garb. It screamed of insecurity and neediness. Haku's was semi-acceptable kunoichi wear, but Miriki looked like some sort of fashion-obsessed civilian nobleman.

His attention was yanked away from the clothing of his squadmates when Deihaka stopped in the middle of the arena and pulled out two bells, speaking in the same lilting, ragged voice: "This is a little trial that I learned from a jonin from the Hidden- I mean, made up myself, and I think it's a good test of a team's... uh... capability. Here's how this's gonna work: I'm gonna stay in this arena for..." he visibly considered for a moment- "Ten minutes, 'n at the end of the minutes, whoever has a bell gets to stick around on the team and whoever doesn't will go back to the academy. You can attack me as much as you want... don't be afraid to hurt me, I can take it." He made a _hic_ noise as he caught on an inwards breath and swayed a little bit unsteadily.

Kame felt he needed to speak. "But sensei, there are only two bells- does that mean one of us is guaranteed to go back to the academy?"

Deihaka shrugged. "You figure it out. Now, right here I have two bells, and you have three hou-" he froze briefly. "Uh, ten minutes to grab them, and then whoever doesn't-"

"You already told us this," Miriki noted.

"No I-" Deihaka frowned. "Yes I did. Okay, then go!"

The instant he said the word, Haku darted so fast she was practically a blur, coming up behind him and swinging out a leg. Kame froze in shock at the display of speed- he hadn't even had time to register the trial starting.

Deihaka got a hand up to block the strike from hitting his head and leaped back. "Ugh, I'm a jonin and you're a genin... what makes you think you can just-" he broke off as she charged him again. "Why're you doing this?" She didn't respond, coming at him straight with a raised fist. Deihaka, visibly bored, made the correct block with his hands as she closed the last few feet- but then she blurred again and ended up upside down, supported on her bent elbows right before his feet, underneath and past the block, kicking a leg straight up towards the jonin's chin. Kame leaned forward- _is she gonna actually land a solid hit on a jonin?_

However, it stopped just short of Deihaka's chin, blocked by… something. As little flecks of metallic dust trickled down, Kame realized what it was: _t_ _he magnet release! He used it to block the strike last minute with a shield!_ Deihaka grabbed Haku's exposed leg and levered it between his arms, rapidly turning in place and then awkwardly letting go with a stumble to send her flying into a wooden barricade hard enough to demolish it. _She's slower to get up now, that must have injured or dazed her,_ Kame oberved.

He decided to test out Deihaka's defenses with his newest invention and began folding in his hands. Meanwhile, Deihaka was lecturing the downed Haku. "You see... this's why you won't... you're not gonna have success as a ninja with only taijutsu. Against some enemies, it isn't enough- I don't care how strong or fast you are, your bones'll break before my iron does."

 _Done_. Kame raised his arm and tossed a fan of kunai at the ground below Deihaka as he talked. The jonin immediately reactively leaped up into the air, as expected. "Did you really expect a few kunai to work...? Aren't you supposed to be a tactics prodigy, why're- what?" His lecture broke off as Kame's sneakily tossed paper airplane flew towards him. _He shouldn't be able to dodge in midair, so it should at least force him to bring out the iron sand shield_.

However, Deihaka out-thought him, creating a platform of iron from thin air and pushing himself to the ground. "C'mon, I'm a jonin... gimme me at least a little credit." Kame only smiled as his plane sailed through the air past Deihaka, angling upward more and more until it was coming back the way it came, and then down at the unsuspecting target. Its loop completed, it flew straight down towards Deihaka.

At the last minute the Sand jonin's eyes flicked up and he noticed the missile, but it was too late. Kame made the correct handsign and the plane exploded mere inches from Deihaka's head. _Wait- maybe that was too far, I could have killed him…_

As the smoke cleared, his doubts were assuaged as he saw the jonin standing there unharmed, a shield of iron sand protecting him. Upon closer inspection, though, the tip of one of his boots was charred.

 _So he has a limited supply of the iron sand_ , thought Kame. _Maybe_ _if I hit him from enough sides, I can spread the damage enough to- yeah, that's it. I'll need a minute to prepare, and I have to hope that Miriki and Haku don't beat him in that time._ He turned back and began attaching paperbombs to some twine and looping it into the cirular hole on the hilt of a kunai.

Looking back, he noticed that Miriki had disappeared, where to he didn't know. Haku was still on the ground, out of it for the moment, leaving Kame alone to face his opponent. He made sure to quickly finish up his preparations before standing and throwing the two kunai at either side of Deihaka, successfully landing them into the walls of the arena. "Feel like surrendering, Deihaka-sensei? I have you surrounded with paperbombs." Deihaka's eyes narrowed as they dropped to focus on the offending slips of paper all around him.

"So I'm guessing that you're... you think you can spread out the sand until I run out, huh?" The iron in the air around him suddenly lost form and fell to the ground, no longer moving. "The thing is, Coma, I-"

"My name's Kame," Kame interrupted, slightly self-conscious.

"Really? I could have sworn it-" Deihaka shook his head as if to clear his mind. "Doesn't matter. Point is, I saw your little trick earlier with the handsign, so I got a way out."

"What?" Kame was confused by the vagueness of the response- well, _more_ confused than he'd been by the jonin's other bumbled pseudo-lessons. _What's wrong with this guy?_

"'Cause as long as a ninja's controlling something, and that something is dangerous, you can always just…" Kame suddenly felt something brushing against his leg and looked down in horror to see that Deihaka's iron sand had stealthily made its way across the ground from the jonin's feet to his own. _Shit!_ Kame leaped backward and managed to escape the sand, but then felt a presence behind him in midair. _I should have blown the explosives when I had the chance!_

"... Take out the ninja in charge," Deihaka finished while awkwardly slamming a forearm down onto Kame's head, hard enough to launch him back into the dirt and knock his breath away. Deihaka fumbled his own landing but managed to keep his balance enough to avoid falling.

As soon as his breath had recovered enough, Kame shifted himself backwards and pulled out two kunai that had paperbombs attached to their hilts. Turning, he saw Deihaka resume his position in the center of the arena, cockily spinning the bells around his fingers and whistling an off-key medley of seemingly random songs. _Now's my chance!_ Kame fired the kunai off one after the other, and as he thought, Deihaka decided to show off and simply dodge them instead of using the sand shield.

He detonated the second one when it was a foot or so away from Deihaka's face, hoping to get lucky and score a hit. The jonin's eyes widened and the sand came up, too late, as Kame watched a wave of explosive energy envelop his teacher's face.

Deihaka cried out in pain and fell over, but didn't bleed- and Kame soon saw why, as the man's entire body slowly lost color and dissolved into sand. The real Deihaka stepped out from behind one of the wooden barricades, with a look nearing pride on his face as he looked at Kame's handiwork on his sand clone. "That was a fun little trick... nice one, but it doesn't matter how smart or quick or strong or smart an attack is when you use it on a clone."

"I knew that-" he hadn't- "However, how else do you think I was going to draw the real you out?" Kame challenged, pulling out another special little thing he'd created only the previous night. It was a relatively light cube of folded paper with a wind-nature-chakra paperbomb within it.

He pulled out another two kunai and tossed them at Deihaka, following them up with the cube. His aim was true, and the ball sailed straight up over the enemy. While Deihaka was busy dealing with the knives, he detonated the concussive explosive within the ball, sending the outer layer of paper out with great speed and plastering the ground all around the detonation zone.

Deihaka's eyes widened as he noticed the change and he leaped backwards while putting up a shield in front of himself, barely getting out before the field detonated, but also stepping straight into Kame's trap. Kame had intentionally detonated the ball slightly early and placed the circular zone a little bit ahead of Deihaka, leaving him with a single option: to jump out on the nearest side and make a wall with his sand.

However, what he hadn't noticed was that in that direction laid the fallen paperbomb wires outlining a medium-sized area. The fight had knocked up enough sand and dust to obscure them, but Kame had kept their location in mind since he'd laid them down. Deihaka paused for breath, unaware of the imminent danger, and Kame laughed- a single handsign was all he needed. "Now you're mine!" He made his fingers into the detonation sign and the sand all around his opponent erupted with fourteen separate explosions.

The smoke was intense this time, and sand rained down from the sky, scattering all around the makeshift arena- however, there was no iron sand mixed in with it. This heralded the sight he was about to lay eyes upon, which was one of a solid circular wall that Deihaka had somehow managed to erect around himself. "Where the hell did you get enough iron sand to pull that off?" Kame muttered angrily, frustrated at being thwarted.

"I can..." Deihaka panted, somehow _out of breath_ despite only fighting one genin. "I can get the metal from nearby... I don't know, metal things. You keep... keep assuming things when you shouldn't... it's setting you back. In fact, in... uh..." Deihaka straightened up to look at the clock on the wall- "One minute, it's gonna set you back for another year at the academy."

Kame shook his head, still in disbelief that Deihaka could utilize such an ironclad defense. _How can I beat an opponent that can make defensive walls of unbreakable metal at will?_ He looked up in desperation at the man who would have been his teacher and gasped in surprise- Haku was not only conscious, but had somehow gotten behind him and was leaping at him from behind.

Tipped off, Deihaka slowly turned, his wall starting to collapse inward, but it was too late. Haku landed inside his defense and slammed him directly in the face with a right hook that sent him flying ten meters, bouncing twice but managing to land in a makeshift crouch. His eyes flared in annoyance and trails of metal dust came streaming in towards him from all around the arena, but Haku was faster and reached him first, swinging her other fist towards his head. He dodged just in time for her to crunch her hand into the wall, sending a few spiderwebbed cracks out at the impact location. However, even as her attack 'failed,' her other hand was reaching towards the bells on Deihaka's waist, only for the iron sand to arrive and start to form a defense-

But the moment it came within a short distance of Haku, it slowed and even began to fall apart, leaving her free to grab the bells and roll backwards. The defensive move proved unnecessary, because Deihaka stopped fighting the moment she'd gotten her prize. In an unexpected move, though, she turned to toss one of her bells to Kame, who nearly let it fall past him due to his surprise.

"We're..." Haku glanced at him but turned away just as quickly, seeming awkward all of a sudden. "We're even."

Before Kame could formulate an answer, Deihaka spoke, despite still lying spread-eagled on his back and apparently making no effort to get up. "Well, I guess that's it then. Time's up, and Miriki isn't even-" At that exact moment, Miriki came charging in with a dinner bell clutched in his hand. Deihaka craned his neck from his position on the ground, raising both eyebrows. "Miriki, what... what're you doing?"

"Well, you said 'at the end of the time whoever isn't holding a bell will go back to the academy' Deihaka-sensei, and now I'm here with a bell." Miriki smiled.

Kame started to yell at him but Deihaka beat him to it. "I meant the bells I have on me! Not some random bell that... I don't know, you probably stole from someone!"

"Hey! Firstly, I _bought_ it from a nice vendor at the market! And secondly, you should have specified, then. Because your exact words were 'at the end of the minutes, whoever has a bell gets to stick around on the team!'" Miriki retorted with a slow smile. Deihaka frowned and seemed to have a silent staring contest with the genin, before sighing and shrugging.

"Whatever... I guess it'd probably be a pain to have to replace you in the squad, right?" His voice dropped into a mumble as he continued, "Damn it, now I _have_ to-" he cut himself off before he finished the thought, but Kame was pretty sure what he'd been getting at. _Was this whole thing a convoluted attempt to get out of work?_ "But, before I pass you, why don't you take a crack at the point of all this? You sorta did it, but I didn't... don't think it was on purpose."

Kame thought for a moment before remembering some snippet he'd read about Naruto's own early training, doing this _exact_ exercise, in fact... "Teamwork. The purpose of the test was to see if we could work as a team together to defeat you, despite there being less bells than people." _Although that didn't matter, what with Miriki cheesing his way through the test_.

"Right! Anyway, I guess I accept you as my students, but missions don't start until tomorrow, so…" Deihaka let out another quiet _hic_. "How 'bout you go over your strengths 'n weaknesses so we can all get to know each other better? Oh yeah, also tell me why you wanna be a ninja."

Miriki replied first. "Okay then. My name is Miriki Kosuki, and I am a, uh... genjutsu specialist. I'm still working on my clan's kekkeigenkai. My taijutsu is poor and my ninjutsu is decent, and I primarily use the water nature." He said the entire piece confidently and smiled the whole time. "I want to be a ninja because it's a great way to pick up girls and annoy my family at the same time."

Kame grit his teeth, restraining himself from commenting on the other boy's ridiculous statement. He looked over at Haku, who seemed unwilling to go next, and shrugged. "All right then, my name is Kame Hakiara. I plan to specialize in tactics, ninja tools, and ninjutsu. I've used wind and fire changes of nature and I'm training to unlock earth. My taijutsu is decent and I can release genjutsu but I don't have much talent for using them. My biggest accomplishment is the specialized paperbombs that I've made, which vary in utility and destructive power. I've also shown an aptitude for puppetry and art style ninjutsu, although the paper style I'm developing is what I hope to be my strongest asset. I want to be a ninja because I've admired the greatest shinobi since I was young and hope to..." he trailed off, feeling acutely awkward at actually stating his dream out loud.

Deihaka nodded slowly. "You're... you seem like you have some good potential, Kame. I'm gonna expect a lot from you." Kame nodded and hoped that the prideful warmth he felt in his cheeks wasn't actually visible.

Haku looked left and right, then sighed, "Hello, my name is Haku. I don't have a family name because..." she trailed off, looking down at the ground, and then seemed to gather the nerve to rush through the rest: "Because I came here an orphan and have no memory from before then. I'm great at taijutsu and and have a lot of chakra, but something, I _don't know what_ , stops me from channeling it into ninjutsu or genjutsu. Because of that, I've been spending all of my training time focusing on my taijutsu."

Deihaka frowned. "We need to look at what could be holding you-" he choked off, but this time with a lot more urgent panic than any of the other times he'd left sentences unfinished earlier that day. Neither Haku nor Miriki seemed to notice, but Kame knew there was something deeper going on when Deihaka awkwardly segwayed into simply ending the conversation with "You all can go home early for the day."

Haku turned and start attacking one of the training dummies, making the same kick over and over. Miriki, on the other hand, walked away towards the downtown area (probably looking for more girls to woo). Kame jogged off towards the rapidly disappearing Deihaka. "Deihaka-sensei! Please wait, I'd like to speak with you!"

"What is it?" Deihaka slowed slightly and allowed Kame to catch up and slide up next to him. "What is this about, Kame?"

Kame's eyes flashed down to the bottle that the jonin was surreptitiously sliding back into his vest. _Wait, was he drunk this whole time? But..._ "Deihaka-sensei, while we fought you, I saw Haku's eyes change, and she stopped your sand jutsu. Is there something about her that she isn't telling us?" Kame didn't know of any techniques that could turn off an opponent's jutsu that a genin would know. In addition, her speed was far beyond that of an academy student's; no matter how hard she'd trained, Kame didn't think anyone their age could achieve could reach that level.

Deihaka looked away. "I… don't know anything about that. Are you sure you aren't just seeing things?" Although the words were spoken innocently, Kame's instincts were telling him that it was a lie. "Look, I need to give my report on the genin in my squad to the Kazekage, so why don't you return home and go back to... I don't know, making more paperbombs?"

With that, the elder ninja leaped off towards the Kazekage's tower, leaving Kame alone to think. He briefly considered just walking away, but his curiosity was far too strong and he impulsively ran off after his squad leader, pulling out a small sheet of paper and small flask of chakra-infused ink.

After dipping the brush into it he channeled even more of his chakra into the brush itself, before drawing the sign for 'listen' and around it a housefly. When he arrived, he poured his intent into his drawing and then activated his art jutsu, bringing the ink to life. It peeled off the page and condensed into the shape of a small fly that immediately flew off towards the top level that he'd watched Deihaka enter. The Art Style was something he'd briefly considered going more into, but as time went on he realized that due to how slow it was its users had to be able to make incredibly quick decisions. Kame was more of a slow, tactical analyzer, so he'd moved towards more adaptable techniques (while retaining his few utility art jutsu).

As an afterthought, he dropped one more paperbomb at his feet and started his wait. After a good twenty or so minutes, the fly came back out and landed on the paper. The ink it was made from seeped down and everything it had heard was transcribed right there. Kame looked down and began reading:

 _ **Deihaka**_ : Hello, Lord Kazekage. The test went... well; all three-

 _ **Gaara**_ : Deihaka, you're a mess.

 _ **Deihaka**_ : Sorry, Lord Kazekage. I...

 _ **Gaara**_ : What have I told you about this awful habit?

 ** _Deihaka_** : Apologies. I swear it will not happen again.

Kame blinked a few times, feeling a bit awkward at reading the highly personal discussion between the two, and skipped down a few lines to get to the important part:

 _ **Deihaka**_ : The Kosuki avoided the test entirely and tried to skip around it on a technicality, so only the Hakiara boy and the Yorutsume girl actually fought me. They managed... they got the bells off of me and shared them, sir.

 _ **Gaara**_ : Excellent. Those three in particular have the makings of exceptional shinobi. What happened with the Yorutsume girl? How has Haku progressed?

Kame paused. _Yorutsume, huh?_ He hadn't realized that Haku had a clan- in fact, she herself had said she didn't have one. Was the village keeping a secret from them? He looked back down to see how the conversation went after that.

 _ **Deihaka**_ : She accidentally used a bit of the first stage of the Yorutsume kekkeigenkai, but... she doesn't seem like she has a clue about her seal or mark. Guess we're safe from that for the time being.

 _ **Gaara**_ : Try to keep her from manifesting either if you can.

 _ **Deihaka**_ : Yes, sir.

 _ **Gaara**_ : What about the Hakiara boy? He'd requested lessons with Kankuro, but I turned him down due to his age and lack of puppet style lineage. Do you think he's suited for it?

 _ **Deihaka**_ : Yeah, sure. He's a tactical prodigy, right? Even workshops his own ninja tools... I don't know, can't think of anyone _more_ suited...

 _ **Gaara**_ **:** All right, I'll ask Kankuro to do it as soon as possible. For the time being, continue to monitor Haku.

 _ **Deihaka**_ : Alright. One more thing, though, sir, what should I do if the ten-

The paper was suddenly ripped from Kame's hands and shredded, left in a thousand tiny pieces fluttering down to the ground. Kame swallowed and slowly turned to see Deihaka himself standing there on the tree branch behind him.

"Whaddaya think you're doing, Kame?" Despite the slurring of his voice, the jonin's face visibly burned with rage.

"Uhm… escaping?" Kame signed and the paperbomb at his feet detonated, exploding and spreading a large cloud of smoke. The moment it went off he leaped, but not away, just straight up. He stopped on a higher branch of the tree and cast the transformation jutsu, becoming an offshoot limb and sitting there for five minutes, just to make sure Deihaka was gone, before dropping down and jogging off towards his home. There were no signs of anyone pursuing him.

He made his way home as quickly as he could without sprinting or drawing attention to himself, trying not to overthink his situation and scare himself. Spying on private conversations involving the Kage was a serious offense- the punishment for him could be bad. _I might get sent back to the academy... or worse!_ Kame worried more and more. _What if they decide that I'm a spy? Why did I have to go and fulfill my curiosity!?_

He finally reached his house, a medium-sized building on the edge of the town, and jogged forward up the path to the door. The only real defining feature of the two-story home was the stone shed outside the main structure which contained his workshop. From the look of the place his parents had returned. _Great, they're finally back. They've been gone for a whole week._

Kame stepped in the door and immediately regretted several decisions as he looked upon Deihaka, his father, and his mother all three standing in the living room with arms crossed. _Shit! How did he beat me home!? Did he just head straight there as soon as I dropped the smokescreen?_ He looked up and smiled weakly. "So… hey there, mom, dad, welcome back home… Deihaka-sensei, fancy seeing you here…"

They just stared angrily. His dad broke the awkward silence. "Deihaka has told us what you've done. What were you thinking!? You know our family is relatively new to the Hidden Sand, why would you do such a thing and make us look like traitors!?" He was right. As newcomers to the village who'd only been there for four generations, his family's position was precarious still- _And what did I jeopardize it for_ , he thought, _satisfaction of my passing curiosity!?_

"I am deeply sorry for what I did. Feel free to interrogate me or do whatever you see fit to do to confirm that I am not a spy." Kame bowed deeply, almost afraid to look back up and see the judgement in the eyes of the adults.

To his surprise, instead he felt a hand on his shoulder. Deihaka helped pull him up to look him in the eyes. "'S alright. We already did some deep background checks on your whole family 'cause of your… unique situation. Plus, we had some ANBU check in from time to time. You didn't show any suspicious activity up until this point, so since you have a believable reason for spying, I'll let you off with a warning... this time."

Kame started to sigh in relief but was stopped by a sudden flash of seriousness in Deihaka's features. "But if you even sneeze in a suspicious way again, I'm not gonna take it this lightly, got it?"

Kame gulped. "Yes, sir."

Deihaka smiled and sat back. "Good, good. Now, I guess since you already read our whole talk, I need to go over some rules of... uh..." he scratched his head, searching for the correct word. "-Disclosure with you." Kame kept his face calm, although his heart was racing. _He doesn't know I didn't finish reading the paper! This might be my chance to learn what I couldn't earlier_!

Deihaka sat down, motioning for Kame to do so as well, and waved a hand towards the other two adults in the room: "You two gotta get... you need to go, you can't hear about this stuff, it's sensitive or whatever." They complied, and judging by the jonin's response they didn't make any attempts to eavesdrop. "Okay, where the hell do I even start here? Uh, you're not supposed to tell anyone about the Yorutsume clan thing or the jinchuriki thing."

Kame narrowed his eyes at his squad leader, suddenly able to notice the _many_ symptoms of intoxication the man was showing. _He was_ that _drunk for the entire testing process?_ However, curiosity about Haku kept him from pursing that thought any further, instead driving him to consider what Deihaka had just said. As far as he knew, all of the tailed beasts currently had jinchuriki, which meant that she was something special. "She doesn't know?" he tried to keep the conversation going.

"Well, no, she doesn't, not since she came to the village six years ago. I got told by- uh, _someone_ told me the sealing mark used on her was something we hadn't seen. They did a bunch of tests and she's got the whole damn tentails- ha, no," Deihaka shook his head with a smile wholly inappropriate for the subject of discussion, apparently amused by his own slip-up. "She's got, like, a _tiny_ little piece of the tentails in her, and it'll probably never come out... but the seal's _super_ fucked-up, so people're worried the tentails piece might get spit out if she dies.

"So anyway, they decided to keep her kept far away from the rest of the village... just in case. Lord Gaara made sure she got taught basic stuff and... y'know, didn't starve, n' all that. The council didn't want her to go to the academy, but..." Deihaka glanced around before continuing in a more conspiratorial tone: "I'm pretty sure Gaara let her in anyway. They mighta assumed that she wouldn't be able to graduate, 'cause of... wait, how _did_ she graduate?"

Kame might have been worried about his sensei figuratively 'putting two and two together' if he wasn't also pretty sure that the man was drunk enough to literally get five from that equation. Instead, he forged ahead with another question: "But her taijutsu's insane. She's faster than anyone my age that I've seen, by a _wide_ margin."

"Right, right. I was wondering that too, took a quick look at her physical- turns out all that chakra that she couldn't push out got sent _in_. She's been using it to make herself stronger and faster, like you... like you said." _Just like the stories of Tsunade_ , Kame remembered vaguely, only to be snapped back to attention by Deihaka's tone going almost _apologetic_ : "Honestly, I wouldn't blame you or anything like that if you wanna quit the squad now. There isn't gonna be any punishment, you can just get sent to another team. Haku'd go back- uh, Haku and Miriki'd go back to the academy for another year."

Kame thought for a moment. If he said yes and got lucky, he might be able to be with Tetsute and Rakuyo! However, as he thought further, he had a sixth sense that attracted him to the mysterious cursed girl. As a person who prided himself on making informed, rational decisions, his mind was screaming for him to do it, but his heart told a different story. _I'm going to regret this_ , he thought as he sighed and voiced his choice: "If not me, then wouldn't someone else have to bear the risk? Anyway, judging from the stories I've heard, if the ten-tails escapes then we're all in trouble. Plus, my skills complement hers. I have confidence that she and I... and Miriki," he added as an afterthought, "Can become a strong team."

Deihaka face flashed with an expression Kame couldn't read for an instant before settling into a smile. "That's... good... to hear, Kame. You got any more questions before I go?" He stood up.

"Actually…" Kame started, "I was wondering… what exactly does her kekkeigenkai do?"

"I don't know," Deihaka responded, getting up to go before hesitating. "I mean, I heard it has something to do with stealing chakra? But even way back before her whole clan kicked the bucket, it was-" Deihaka coughed. "I mean, even back before she was the only one with it, it wasn't super well known what it did."

For the first time Kame could remember, his sensei went dead serious and actually seemed to shed most of the intoxicated haze with his final words of the night: "Don't tell anyone about any of this, especially not her."

With that, the jonin took a _deep_ swig from his bottle and disappeared with a Body Flicker, leaving Kame with a huge amount of information to think upon. His parents came back in and started to try and speak with him, but he was adamant on not breaking his word and kept quiet about what he and Deihaka had discussed. They relented and went to eat dinner as a family, and then he went upstairs to his room and fell asleep without tinkering at all for the first time in quite a while.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Graduation Exam Data: Miriki Kosuki**

Ninjutsu: C  
\- Instructor (Seijo Namae) Notes: _Decent grasp of basic jutsu and single nature transformation despite obvious lack of effort_

Genjutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Maindo Kuso) Notes: _Adept at utilizing, detecting, and neutralizing genjutsu of all types_

Taijutsu: D  
\- Instructor (Saitama Kenji) Notes: _Physically weak and resistant to changing that  
_\- Instructor (Nagano Tsukia) Notes: _No particular talent for weaponry, unmotivated to improve past bare minimum_

Appearance: _Age fourteen._ _Normal height (5'5"), slightly thin build, medium-length and permanently styled-to-one-side black hair, light blue eyes. Typically forgoes Sand genin vest and instead wears white coats with expensive, high-quality clothing underneath._

Attitude: _Shows very little desire for improvement, only really demonstrates growth in genjutsu. Socially very popular, though a few students are openly hostile towards him, and proves to be a distraction for many female students. This seems to go both ways, as he also_ _pays more attention to chasing girls than his teachers._

History: _Comes from Kosuki clan, a prominent and incredibly wealthy clan of the Hidden Sand, and is the only child of the current clan head. Grew up rich and respected by most people around him, yet is impressively tactful, which is less than surprising. The Kosuki clan, while never producing ninja, historically have proven to be highly successful in economics and politics alike. Miriki's decision to join the academy and break from the tradition of a long line of pacifists is an unexpected one, and somewhat at odds with his lackadaisical attitude towards ninja training._


	3. The Outcast

Kame awoke the next day determined to get off to a great start on missions. His parents had already woken up and gone to report in for their next assignment (as two members of Sand border security they were rarely at home). He himself prepared a quick breakfast and left early, determined to check something, but did stop briefly to pick up a huge stack of paper bombs that he'd prepared over the last few months, fitting the pile neatly into a container on his belt. Reaching over, he also made sure to grab his new Sand shinobi headband, tying it neatly around his head trying not to smirk with pride.

Trekking through silent streets in the morning cold, Kame found his thoughts drifting towards the Kazekage. Gaara had held the position for an incredibly long time; from a young age he'd reigned until now in his early seventies, making him one of the oldest Kage in history alongside his friend and comrade Naruto Uzumaki. Kame had always felt a deep respect for the man for overcoming the mistrust of the entire village and eventually even leading it through the Fourth Shinobi World War. Kame's parents had been keen on him fitting into Sand society, so naturally the first books and reports he'd been allowed to read were the tales of the Fifth Kazekage's exploits, solidifying the man as one of his personal heroes and an example to chase.

When he made it to the village center, he walked up to a shopkeeper named Gerin. The old man wasn't the most interesting or sane of people, but he was a reliable source of both art supplies and (on the rare occasion that Kame bothered to deal with them) information on village social affairs. "Hey, Gerin!"

"Well, hello there, young Kame. What brings you here today?" Gerin slowly turned.

"I was hoping that you could tell me where Haku lives?"

"Who?"

"Haku. The girl with the purple hair? She arrived here about six years ago." Kame found it hard to believe that Gerin had no clue that she existed- then again, _he_ hadn't known about her until roughly forty-eight hours ago, so he wasn't one to talk.

"Oh yes, her. The feral child… why are you looking for her? It's best to stay away from people like that." Gerin couldn't know about her true jinchuriki nature, so he must simply have a personal feeling about Haku. _Is this how most of the Sand villagers feel?_

"Why would I want to stay away from her?" Kame tried to keep his voice casual despite rampant curiosity.

"Well... I don't think I should... let me just say that she's trouble. Why would you want to be near her, anyway?" While talking about Haku, Gerin's voice had entered a tone that was strangely secretive. He wouldn't meet Kame's eyes, either.

"She's my squad member and I'd like to speak with her before we start on missions. Why wouldn't I want to be around her?"

Gerin grunted and looked from side to side before dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "A few years ago she attacked a group of other children and tried to kill them. After that, the village moved her to be kept imprisoned over somewhere in a tunnel in the northern wall," he said, pointing towards the area, "Because she was too dangerous to be kept around normal people. She's mostly been in there ever since, I think. Can't confirm it, but I've been told she lives alone." The elderly man shrugged and turned back to preparing his store to open.

Kame thanked him and jogged off towards where she ostensibly lived. As he approached the bottom edge of the wall, he was distracted- as he always was- by the sheer scale of the Hidden Sand's legendary defensive barrier. Every Sunagakure child knew the legends of the First Kazekage's creation of the wall: centuries ago in the Warring States period, there had stood a solitary mountain in the middle of the desert with caves running all throughout it, the fortress of the Kuyanari family. The First Kazekage, Reto, had come to them first under a flag of peace and offered them a place in the village he would create, only to be rebuffed by the Kuyanari patriarch, who'd famously said what would ironically become their family's words: "We of the mountain do not shift and break like the sands of the desert."

Even more famous was Reto's response: "Do not mistake longevity for strength. Mountains, men, all things are born from dust, and to dust they will return." He'd then given the Kuyanari twenty-four hours to evacuate, after which he'd- in a single instant, with a single wind jutsu- leveled the entire mountain, cleanly removing the top and most of the interior. This was the birth of the Hidden Sand, as well as the philosophy spawned by his words: The Will of Wind, or the idea that a strong will, like the unceasing winds of the desert, could weather away anything to dust.

Kame's thoughts came back down to earth as he neared the bottom edge of the wall and found himself looking at an archway carved into it, beyond which stretched a dark tunnel and a set of stairs that disappeared upwards.

 _Does Haku really live here?_ Kame looked around, but there didn't appear to be any other options matching Gerin's description. _I guess I'm going in, then_.

The passageway was wide enough for multiple people but clearly decrepit, in need of maintenance from its cracking walls to the fluorescent lights that were more often cracked and dark than actually functional. Even odder, Kame passed multiple branching passageways that had all been collapsed, with obvious signs of their state being intentional. He caught a glimpse of a solid metal door half-buried in the rubble of one of them and a memory tickled at his mind, but refused to come forward.

Then Kame found himself looking at the bottom of a staircase in front of him, which he tracked with his eyes through several right turns until his gaze had spiraled nearly straight upwards. _Oh, you have_ got _to be kidding me_ , he complained, as the sight of the near-endless climb that awaited him sank in.

For a moment he considered just turning around, but his feet were already dragging him up the first flight of steps.

Many minutes later, he finally cleared the last step and found himself looking out at a view that was easily enough to make him forget the entire ordeal. The entirety of the Village Hidden in the Sand lay sprawled out before him, sun beginning to crest the wall off to his east but still leaving the majority of the village in the shadow of the stone. From his vantage point near the top of the wall itself, standing on a ten-meter-by-ten-meter plateau of flat stone seemingly carved directly out of the wall around it. _I can't believe Haku lives here-_

 _Right, Haku_. Kame tore his eyes off the scene and looked towards his side at the back edge of the cubbyhole of sorts and saw a metal door like the one from earlier, which (now intact) was enough to get him to _finally_ remember what had been nagging away at him earlier.

He knew what this place was: the remnants of the North Bastion, a prison for the Hidden Sand's political enemies and missing-nin that had been infamous for its brutality before it had been shut down. The endless floors branching off of the flight of stairs and the collapsed tunnels suddenly made sense- they had once been cells, containing poor souls unfortunate enough to earn themselves a lifetime of solitary confinement.

 _Why does Haku live here?_ Kame narrowed his eyes and turned to the metal door, striding up to it and knocking on it a few times, to no response. He tried again, louder, but still there was no response whatsoever. Hesitantly, he pushed against the door, opening it and stepping inside.

The house itself was… well, it wasn't messy, but that was because there was almost nothing there. A few books leaned against a refrigerator, sitting next to a cabinet and a sink on the right wall. The rest of the room was dominated by her bed, empty but unmade. A cabinet with the top drawer left open held her skirts. He pulled open the second drawer and then immediately slammed it shut, unable to suppress a violent blush from spreading across his face. _What was I thinking, digging through her clothing drawers like some kind of pervert?_

 _Where is she?_ Kame thought about the available evidence inside the house; _S_ _he_ _must have left to go…_ he walked over and looked into the refrigerator, finding it near-empty. _Ah, to the market, then._ He turned around and left the house, avoiding another bout of distraction by the sweeping panoramic view of the village, and went down the twenty-six (this time he counted) flights of stairs, all the way back down. To his embarrassment, running the gauntlet that Haku apparently ran daily left him lightly sweating and slightly out of breath.

After a brief pause to orient himself towards the nearest market, Kame departed from the tunnel's mouth, jogging over towards the grocer's section of the city. However, he'd barely made it halfway there when he found himself turning a corner into an alleyway to come upon a terrible scene.

Rakuyo, Genji, and Tetsute had encircled Haku, making escape in either direction in the narrow alleyway difficult. Tetsute was actively speaking around a wide smirk, but underneath Kame's trained eyes could see the telltales signs of his muscular friend's simmering resentment. "Haku, why'd you have to go and cheat on the exam? You and I both know that a retard like you couldn't pass it. What, did you sleep with the instructor so he'd do it for you, or something?"

Haku swallowed and shook her head, eyes distraught. "I… I didn't…"

Rakuyo laughed. "No, no, no, don't try to sell me some story where you learned how to use ninjutsu one day before the test. You don't go from two years of being a brain-deficient invalid to suddenly able to cast jutsu overnight, idiot."

"Next time you think of some dumb plot like this," Tetsute sneered, "Maybe keep in mind that the rest of the world isn't as blind as you are."

"I'm not..." For the second time, Haku inexplicably retreated into herself rather than stand up to them.

"Yeah, you are," Rakuyo sighed. "If you could even see _yourself_ , you would have dropped out a long time ago."

Tetsute shook his head, "And now you're dragging Kame down with you. See, the way I figure it is, if you hadn't passed, then Kame might have ended up on our team, and Genji could have been with his friend Miriki. Not that you'd know anything about friends."

Haku fell silent, her eyes softening to become more despondent than resistant and her cheeks coloring. Tetsute kept going, gleefully now: "So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna go to Kazekage's offices. You're gonna tell them that you cheated on the test and that you want to go back to the academy. And then, you're gonna quit your stupid little team so Genji, Rakuyo and I can get proper partners for the rest of our time as ninjas. Understood?"

Haku shook her head.

Tetsute narrowed his eyes at her before his eyes widened and a grin split his face. "Oh, I see, if you admit that you cheated now, then you'll never get away with it again. And with your infant-level grasp of chakra control, you'll never pass normally- Ha!" He barked out a laugh. "Forget career genin, you could be the first person to end up in the academy forever!"

Genji chuckled nervously and Rakuyo contained her giggle to speak as well. "I think we'd honestly be doing the Sand village a favor… Can you imagine, being under attack by enemy ninja and then having some idiot with no ninjutsu or genjutsu show up to help?" She joined the other two in laughter.

Tetsute's snickering died down and then he appeared to grow more serious. "Seriously, though, you _are_ going to go turn yourself in. I don't want to leave Kame stuck having to carry you for his entire ninja career- hell, you're even putting his life at risk just by being on his team." Finally, he seemed to lose the facade of happiness, narrowing his eyes and growling out, "So here's the deal, I'll make it real simple so even _you_ can understand: we're gonna play a little game. If you can break my genjutsu and prove that you're at least able to defend yourself against an academy-level threat, I'll leave you alone. Sound good?" She didn't respond, but he obviously hadn't expected her to, continuing his explanation almost immediately: "But if you lose, you quit being a ninja."

Haku finally opened her mouth to reply, only to freeze as Tetsute made a series of signs in her direction and said "Sleep", first stiffening and then falling over in an unconscious slump against the wall beside her. Her eyes flickered beneath their lids as though she was having fitful dreams, but no other movement came from her body.

Tetsute rolled his eyes and turned to Rakuyo: "So, what odds do you give her this time?"

"Eh," Rakuyo responded with an oddly restrained humor in her expression, "Fifty-fifty."

"So high?"

"Well, no," she replied, allowing a bit more mirth to creep across her face, "Fifty percent chance she gives up and loses, fifty percent chance she keeps fighting and still loses."

Genji, who'd been quiet the whole time, finally spoke up in a cautious tone. "Guys, don't you think this is enough? We're trying to scare her off, not hurt her..."

"Hurt her?" Tetsute rolled his eyes once again. "No, moron, I'm being _nice_. Trust me, this isn't the first time I've had to do this, and it won't be the last if she goes out to face shinobi from other villages. The difference here is that I'm a hell of a lot nicer than those enemy ninja will be if she's this easy to drop in a real fight."

For some reason, at his mention of prior times doing this, Kame's mind jolted with a sense of something being wrong, but refused to give him any details. In the meantime, Haku's eyes snapped open, and Rakuyo frowned. "What? Did you decide to go easy on her this time?"

"Not me," Tetsute responded tersely, then immediately flinched and looked up as a few grains of sand tumbled to the ground. Whatever he saw there must have terrified him to his core, because he immediately bolted, Rakuyo and Genji following in his wake instantly, leaving a just-now-waking Haku alone in the alley. Kame, driven by curiosity, followed the path of his old friend's gaze and froze much in the same way, looking straight up at the Kazekage himself, who was standing on a plane of sand that dropped him onto the dusty alley floor.

The old man lowered himself to stand beside Haku. She stood slowly, almost painfully, and grabbed a dirty bag of groceries with sand and dust spread all around within it. _Is she still going to eat that?_ Kame realized that she, as an orphan, must live off the village government's charity. _She probably can't afford to buy new food, even if the stuff she has is filthy._

The Kazekage finally spoke. "Haku, you need to defend yourself from those who treat you so poorly. You don't deserve this for simply following the path you want."

Haku just flushed slightly and looked away, unwilling to respond, and the Kazekage sighed and shook his head. "Go home, Haku. Train more, become stronger, but most importantly- realize your own worth. People will..." He trailed off as Haku darted away, taking the other way out of the alley and back towards her home.

The imposing man then turned to look at Kame. "You there… Kame, right? Come out, now." Kame did as he was bid, shaking slightly at the sight of the Kazekage's face bearing nothing but disappointment for him. "You are her teammate. Why would you just watch three other ninja harm your teammate?"

Kame thought a little before responding. "They were my friends, and… well, they made some valid points. Besides, I figured that if she wanted to defend herself, she could, I've seen her-"

His superior silenced him with a new, sharper tone. "Ah, I see, so those two being your friends once makes their actions defensible? 'They had some valid points'? You're simply making excuses." Kame wanted to defend himself, but he could tell the Kazekage wasn't finished. "As for protecting herself, well… weren't you around, before, when she was eight or nine, a newcomer to the village?" Realization dawned in the old man's pupilless blue eyes as he remembered something. "No, you wouldn't have been, your parents were insistent on maintaining your village's tradition of sheltering and training the child while they are young… let me show you, then, instead."

Before Kame could object, he felt an illusory genjutsu take hold in his mind and he was thrust into a memory, unable to move or do much of anything other than look and hear and somehow _feel_ the situation before him.

_Haku was only eight years old when she stumbled into the village on worn legs, wearing a tattered coat several sizes too large for her and filthy from head to toe. Ninja had ushered her to a medical center, where she'd been treated for extreme fatigue and mental trauma. Immediately after her treatments, Gaara had taken her to find out where she'd come from and what had happened._

_The truth came out- she was a survivor, seemingly the sole survivor, of a tragedy that had wiped out her entire clan. The Yorutsume tribe had been a rarity, existing completely outside of the village system, training their own and rarely contacting the outside world. They took high-level assassination requests as their only outside source of income. A few weeks prior, without warning or visible cause, the entire clan had been wiped from existence, apparently leaving nothing- but now, leaving Haku._

_Gaara had established a way for her to receive enough money to live on from the village, as well as giving her a home in an apartment in the middle of it and searching for possible adoptive parents from among the village's residents. She stayed there for a few days before finally wandering out, looking like a new person after being cleaned up and given some rest. Her eyes, having before looked dead and unhappy, now sparkled with curiosity about this new place all around her._

_Eventually, Haku found her way to the yard where most of the other children played. The game of the day was Ninja Master, where children would take turns showing each other whatever small jutsu they'd mastered in a game of one-upping each other. She tried to participate but failed completely, which was alright- many of the other children were there as watchers; to be able to do anything with one's chakra at that age was impressive._

_However, unlike the others, she took it very hard, looking strangely confused and terrified. Further efforts to form anything failed, and now she was the target of attention. One child told her to just stop, as she obviously wasn't strong enough to complete a jutsu; she reacted to that with an actual flinch of terror and appeared to simply try even harder on her failing attempts._

_A few other children laughed, and the talker, edged on by his comrades, shoved her back a few steps and then cast a faulty clone jutsu of his own, managing to create a single clone- admittedly a pathetic, colorless, useless one, but still far beyond anything an average boy his age would be able to. In response, Haku narrowed her eyes and seemed to try even harder, one last time-_

_But this time, something was wrong. Rather than whatever she'd intended to do with her chakra, instead a dark mist crept from her back and the edges of her eyes filled with a creeping darkness that eventually enveloped them, turning them into flat pools of shadow marred only by a glowing white iris. A few other children screamed and ran, and most stayed put where they were either out of unwillingness to look scared or out of curiosity, but only one actually moved towards her: the talker from before._

_He challenged her, was ignored, yet his continued efforts finally drew a reaction from her- she turned and, in a strained voice, asked him what was going on. The next few instants passed by far too quickly for Kame to react in real time, yet in this strange, illusory world, he watched in terrible detail as Haku's arm shot out far longer than it should have been able to, lengthened fingers wrapping multiple times around the boy's neck and lifting him from the ground. Even as frightened screams erupted from several onlookers and even from Haku herself, her arm swirled with a purple chakra that pooled and then flowed out, seemingly enveloping the head of her victim and muffling his shouts of defiance. His physical struggles faded almost as quickly as his verbal ones, as his kicks grew weaker and weaker, until he hung fully limp, by which point most of the other children had fled the scene._

_One black-haired girl charged in, probably thinking of saving her friend, but was casually batted away by one of Haku's other arms, which was armored by the same purple chakra, and sent the would-be-rescuer flying to land halfway across the play area. She did not get up._

_When all hope seemed lost, a passing Sand ninja in a chunin vest stepped in, first with a wind jutsu that blew in and simply dissipated, and then with his bare hands, yanking the two apart even as he shouted for assistance. More shinobi arrived on the scene, and more, keeping the now vicious and almost animalistic Haku from attacking anyone else. However, none were confident enough to attempt to knock her out safely, so it was a good three more minutes of containment that passed before a squad of four mask-wearing Sand Anbu arrived and whisked her away using several complex jutsu._

The memory cut out, leaving Kame standing there facing his Kazekage in the alleyway. Before he could think of something to say, Gaara's aged voice took over: "After that, there was not much left that I could do. I couldn't very well give her to a civilian or average shinobi to raise, even _if_ any of them had been willing to adopt her- she was simply far too dangerous. Parents wouldn't stand to have their children around something that might kill them, so I relocated her to the top of that cliff and restricted her from interacting with anything. She hasn't had any relapses of the Tentails since then, but..."

When it became clear he wasn't planning on saying anything more for the moment, Kame interjected. "Why are you telling me this?"

"She is your teammate, no?" The Kazekage's eyes, sunken with age but still a brilliant blue within their dark circles, seemed to peer right through Kame. "You are someone close to her, so it's your responsibility now to help her when she's in danger." The platform of sand began to reform, lifting him up and away from Kame. "You have a duty to your teammates as much as you do to your village: to protect them when they cannot protect themselves. They will do the same for you."

Kame's thoughts went to yesterday's bell test, where Haku had shared her second bell with him, and then to the day before, where he'd helped her through the ninjutsu test. By the time his mind returned to the present, he was alone in the alleyway, left to ponder his new information. _She's strong_ _and fast_ , he reasoned, _but not strong and fast enough to deal with Tetsute and Rakuyo, apparently-_

 _No_ , he realized, thinking about how physically gifted she was. _If she wanted to hurt them, she'd have decent odds, especially if she went after Tetsute before he could use that genjutsu, so... why? Why let herself get picked on?_ It only took a second or two for him to piece it together- if she did attack them, there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that the feral child who'd mauled another kid and then been isolated for years and years would suffer no consequences for fighting two of the Sand's golden children, no matter the circumstances. Tetsute and Rakuyo probably didn't even realize that her past had taught her not to fight back, and the thought of them interpreting her submission as cowardice made his blood boil in a way he hadn't ever felt before.

In fact, when he thought of Tetsute and Rakuyo, his mind was at first incredibly torn- they were bullies, but from what he'd just seen they were doing it out of some kind of misguided desire to help him. _No, wait_ , he remembered, _They've been doing this for years, right?_ He wasn't the root cause of them picking on her, he was just one more incentive. The root reasons had to be more complex, and yet...

The more he thought about it, there just _weren't_ any acceptable reasons for them to do what they did. Haku was not a weak link, and he wasn't in undue trouble because of her. Thinking of the Kazekage's look of utter disappointment in him, Kame winced. _I'm not going to be like them_ , he told himself, and reached a decision: he would commit to his team. He would give it his all, and try to make up for his previous friends' treatment of Haku. _She deserves that much, at the very least. In fact, I'll stop looking down on her and Mir-_

 _Well, maybe I'll still look down on Miriki_.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Exam Graduation Data: Haku [Redacted]**

Ninjutsu: F  
\- Instructor (Seijo Namae) Notes: _Despite historically failing ninjutsu assignments, manifested minimum requirements for graduation._

Genjutsu: F  
\- Instructor (Maindo Kuso) Notes: _Total failure to cast or dispel genjutsu until the graduation exam._

Taijutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Saitama Kenji) Notes: _Highly skilled, speed and strength both beyond exceptional_  
\- Instructor (Nagano Tsukia) Notes: _Passable with thrown weapons_

Appearance: _Age fourteen. Tall height (5'6"), highly athletic build, medium-length purple hair, white-irised eyes. Typically clad in tattered purple coat over bandages and white kunoichi top & skirt_

Attitude: _Unable to get along with majority of other students, mostly compliant with teachers but limited in ability to follow instruction. Attitude jumps between ambitious dedication and submissive apathy, suggesting possible unseen motivators._

History: _Arrived at Sand village in 44 A4, showing signs of_ [Redacted] _. After_ [Redacted] _, placed under_ [Redacted] _. Joined the academy in 48 A4, passed two uneventful and relatively unsuccessful years as a student before graduating._


	4. The Disappointment

Kame ended up arriving right around the same time as Miriki (i.e. 'fashionably late') due to the majority of his morning being spent trying to hunt down Haku. When the girl in question, who'd been the first one to arrive, looked over at him, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity that he hoped didn't make to to his face. Apparently he failed, because she narrowed her eyes, and he scrambled mentally to think of some excuse-

But was saved by the arrival of Deihaka through the door, this time without breaking it. In fact, the far reduced slurring in his voice and increased lucidity in his eyes as he started the meeting with "Greetings, genin" was fairly promising.

Kame inclined his head respectfully. "Greetings, Deihaka-sensei."

Miriki, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow and said, "You're late, Deihaka-sensei."

Deihaka shook his head, then immediately winced and held a hand up against it. _Maybe not super promising_. "No, I'm not."

Kame's teammate just pointed at the clock on the wall. "You said to be here at eight o' clock."

"Yep," the jonin replied, talking _far_ more quietly than he had the day before, "But I made zero promises about when _I'd_ show up." Miriki seemed to be formulating a retort, but Deihaka kept going to nip it in the bud: "I know how these things work. You got here late, and I'm not waiting around for you to show up."

He talked confidently, but Kame noticed bags under the man's eyes that suggested a different origin for his tardiness. Miriki, though, did not let it go: "Why am I the one who has to wait, huh?"

This drew him disbelieving glances from both Kame and Haku, but Deihaka seemed to take it in stride. "Because I outrank you, kid." Apparently done with the conversation now, he moved on to look over all three genin before sighing. "We're getting right into it. Our first mission is today, and… well, let's just say that it's not exactly first mission material." Kame started to ask what that meant, but his leader kept talking. "One of our outposts bordering the Land of Rivers missed their last report, so we're being dispatched to 'see what happened'."

Miriki was the first to reply. "Why'd you say that last bit differently?"

Deihaka actually yawned, then winced and held his head once again, doing a surprisingly good job so far of killing Kame's excitement about his first mission. "Because this mission's way more of a way for the Kazekage to remind _them_ to be more dutiful than anything for _us_. The Land of Rivers isn't a relevant military threat; they'd never actually attack one of our outposts and it's far more likely that the incompetent career-chunin stationed there got soft and forgot to send in a report. Now, I'm assuming you all have whatever ninja tools you need?" They all nodded. "Good. We're leaving; try to keep up." Deihaka then, without warning, disappeared out the door, followed by Haku. Miriki and Kame shared a look before following suite, trailing the jonin out of the village and off towards the border.

* * *

It only took a few hours, during which Kame had all the free time in the world to have his happy expectations gradually die away, replaced by equal parts dejectedness brought about by Deihaka's jaded analysis and worry about what might be in store for them should said analysis prove wrong. By the end of their hike, though, he was leaning towards the latter feelings, as from the moment their target came into view, Kame could tell something was off. Although he'd never seen the outpost, his first impression from a distance was that it seemed a little too... _flat_. Deihaka's lapse into silence, the pillar of smoke trailing into the sky, and their sudden increase in pace told the rest of the story. As they neared, they slowed down to move more stealthily, until they could clearly see their objective.

The outpost must have once been a sandstone tower, but no more. All that was left was piled rubble scattered about the ground. Small fires burned, contributing to the column of smoke and dust that marked the location for miles around, yet there was no sign of ninja, neither Sand Shinobi nor enemy. Still, Kame didn't drop his guard.

Deihaka held up a hand, signalling them to stop. "You all need to wait here. I'll see what the situation in there is- if it's all clear, I'll tell you, understood?" They all nodded. He stealthily crept forward, making a few handsigns, and then sank into the sand. A small raised portion was all that betrayed his presence as he made his way forward.

Kame, Miriki, and Haku all sat and stared at each other, awkwardly sitting there in complete silence for seconds stretching into minutes. Eventually, Kame took out some of his firebombs and began folding them into a design he'd come up with, completing most of the folds for a paper airplane, but leaving only the final step undone. In this state, they took up less space and were still flat so they could be stored very easily, but also were but a single quick fold away from being the weaponized airplanes. The pouch had been a gift from his parents- a enlarged version of the standard issue paperbomb container. Seals applied to the pouch itself cut the chakra stored in the paperbombs off from the outside world, which prevented them from all going off when a detonation handsign was issued. Kame had immediately asked for more, and now had two of them attached to either side of his waist at all times.

One done, he moved on to another, and another, and another, quickly falling into a calming pattern of folding. It was actually kind of reassuring, the repetitive-

"Hey Kame! What's Rakuyo like, in person?" Miriki asked loudly, startling Kame out of his focused state.

"What kind of- no no no, don't hit on her, Tetsute will flip his-"

Miriki rolled his eyes. "Just tell me, c'mon... I've only seen her when your little friend group was all angry towards me, what's she like in private?"

 _That's right, we always made fun of him back at the academy_ , Kame remembered. _I should probably feel bad, but..._ the fact that he was having this conversation was a microcosm of the attitude that made Miriki such an insufferable prick. _The day I feel bad for holding Miriki accountable for his attitude is the day I quit this squad for driving me off the deep end_. "Don't even think about it. Trust me, you don't want to mess with her, and... more importantly, can you _stop talking_?"

Miriki snorted and shook his head, "Hey, _you_ trust _me_. I have yet to meet someone who can resist my charms."

Kame just narrowed his eyes. "Will you _stop_ loudly revealing our position to the entire area."

His teammate just smirked. "We've got Deihaka-sensei with us, do you really think we could be in any real danger? We're first-timers, this mission can't be that bad, can it?"

He wasn't taking this even close to seriously enough. "Look, Miriki, Deihaka-sensei was clearly expecting this to be a routine checkup where we would just give them a formal warning. That's not the case, and someone actually destroyed a base manned by three full _chunin_ , so please have your guard up." Kame reached back for his paper.

Haku suddenly leaped forward with a raised fist, planting herself in front of Kame with her back to him. Before he could ask what she was thinking, a figure began to rise up from the sands, and he also took out a kunai. The tension broke immediately, though, when color and detail reappeared on the form of a tired-looking Deihaka.

"You guys have the right instincts, but..." he winced, swaying a fraction of an inch and laying a hand on his forehead. Whatever it was passed quickly and he quickly resumed: "You can't just wait while a possible enemy rises up from the sand in front of you. Strike first, or don't strike at all." He raised an arm to scratch the back of his head. "Anyway, I think I've figured out what happened there, but... might as well make a learning experience out of it. Why don't you all take a crack at it."

Kame nodded and turned to walk towards the broken building. When he arrived, several things became immediately clear: first, the destruction wasn't as bad as it had looked; several pieces of furniture were still intact and it was mostly the outer walls and roof that had been destroyed. Second, the blast that had broken the fort had been from inside it, as the walls collapsed outwards. Third, there had been a fight after the explosion, as several thrown kunai and shuriken were embedded on broken edges of rubble that wouldn't have been exposed before the detonation. Fourth and finally, this fight had happened recently, as the sand hadn't had time to fully settle over and around the broken fortress.

Miriki called out from the main building. "These Sand shinobi weren't leaving in a hurry, huh? This kitchen is empty, and none of 'em left their stuff here, either." Kame considered that. All the evidence pointed towards an assault by some unknown enemy, which had blown apart the fortress before attacking the shinobi within it. However, the guards wouldn't have been prepared in that version of events. If they'd won the fight, they would have reported in, meaning they had to have lost. But if they'd lost, then why were their possessions and food gone? The attacking ninja probably wouldn't have wanted to drag along such things.

Kame dug around some more, but it was Haku who uncovered the next piece of the puzzle. She waved from just outside the fort, calling out, "Hey! There are some paperbombs out here, weird ones…"

He hurried over to see what she was talking about. There were indeed paper bombs, and something else- tracks, not quite masked by the shifting dust. The paper bombs, upon closer inspection, seemed to be similar to the concussive ones he'd figured out. In fact, they looked like they were designed to be even more in that direction- they'd hardly inflict any damage or force at all, just release a powerful burst of air.

Thinking it over, he realized the purpose must have been to mask their tracks- the bomb, when detonated, would have destroyed any sand-based evidence, including the time estimate he'd been able to figure out minutes earlier. Why hadn't they detonated it? Furthermore, since the bomb had remained undetonated, there should have been tracks leading out from the base as well, but there weren't any.

Could the attackers have lost? But the Sand Shinobi were nowhere to be found, so that meant that… they must have wiped each other out simultaneously? But there were no corpses or anything suggesting dead ninja. In fact, there was no blood at all.

Miriki chimed in again. "There's some marking on the ground here, I think I recognize it… yeah, that's a genjutsu that…" he leaned over, studying it intently, "Would- or, did, I guess- knock its targets out for a little while. It got set off, but that's weird, since these things take like an hour to set up."

Kame started to have a creeping suspicion, but he needed to check one more thing to confirm it. Running back into the central courtyard area, he looked at the loosely scattered ninja tools, and his theory was correct: they were all Hidden Sand issue weapons. There was zero evidence of any Hidden Valley shinobi offense, just a single undetonated paperbomb that would have covered their tracks.

He turned to Deihaka, trying to sound as confident as possible and stating, "This battle was immediately won by the Sand Shinobi, who then fled, taking the Valley Shinobi with them. I don't know why they would do that, but the evidence points to it. They destroyed their own base, then scattered kunai and other implements about to disguise it as a battle."

For a few brief seconds, Deihaka remained expressionless, but then he grinned and nodded. "I came to the same conclusion. Good work, Kame, Haku, Miriki, you all seem to have decent reasoning skills. Now, we have to follow this further. If the situation becomes too dangerous, I'll tell you to pull out, and you need to listen, got it?"

They all nodded. Deihaka then slung his backpack around onto the ground and began digging around in it. "We've covered enough ground today, now we camp for the night. We can start again early tomorrow morning. I'll take first watch, then I'll wake Haku, who should watch for a few hours before waking Kame. Miriki, you're last, you get up early and go after Kame.

"Now, who's hungry?" He reached into his pack and removed a large hip flask, raising it all the way up to his lips before freezing with eyes that snapped over towards his genin charges. A tiny visible battle went on, which concluded with him lowering the flask, screwing the top back on, and slamming it back into his pack almost angrily, producing a meal pack in its place and starting to dig in.

"Uh, Deihaka-sensei..." Kame began, but Miriki finished it for him.

"You forgot to tell us to bring food!"

Deihaka lowered his utensils. "You all need me to tell you to bring food?" Before Miriki could answer the rhetorical question, he kept going, "No. I didn't have to tell you to bring kunai-"

"We were supposed to bring kunai?"

That one got a snicker out of Haku, but Deihaka merely ground his teeth. "Damn it, if I let you starve I'm pretty sure it's breaking some kind of rule, right?"

"Absolutely," Miriki replied, a bit _too_ quickly.

"Oh!" Deihaka lit up, then turned to rummage around in his bag once again, finally producing three pellets that Kame recognized after a second or two. "Food pills," he announced triumphantly, "Here you go."

Kame felt the need to interject at this point. "Aren't those supposed to have all kinds of nasty side effects?"

"Nope," Deihaka said, before immediately backtracking. "Okay, maybe, but these are the ration kind, not the 'fight for three days without rest' type." _Well, that's not so bad_ , Kame thought, reaching to take one- "Probably." _Okay, not reassuring-_ "Maybe. Actually, how old are these things?" Deihaka said apparently to himself, scrunching his brow in confusion. "When did I... nevermind! Eat up," he finished, face returning to the very picture of sincere generosity.

Kame slowly retracted his hand. _Compared to bottom-of-backpack food pills of unknown age and composition_ , he thought, _No dinner suddenly doesn't sound so bad_. Miriki and Haku both seemed to share the sentiment, because neither of them made any move for the offerings, either. Deihaka's sincere smile morphed to more of a smirk as he sat back and chuckled out, "Alright, alright, fair enough. Get some sleep while you still can."

Each of them unpacked their bedrolls and settled down for the night inside the broken building. After lying down, Kame drifted off to sleep easily and dreamlessly.

* * *

When Kame woke up, it was naturally, not from Haku's shaking as he'd expected. Rolling over, he straightened up to see a sky pitch-black except for the wide array of stars, the light of the moon the only thing preventing complete darkness. Right as he was about to try to fall back asleep, he heard movement from behind him and turned to see what it was. His eyes settled on a sitting form that had to be Haku, staring at her arm. He could barely make out a silhouette in the dim light, but she sounded to be breathing heavily. The standoff lasted for almost a minute, before she wrenched the arm back down to her side, standing up and sighing.

Kame barely remembered in time to pretend to be asleep when she stepped over to him and shook him. "Kame, it's your turn, get up." He stood, stretching his sore limbs and yawning, pretending to blink away grogginess.

He swallowed and looked around. "Okay, okay, I got it." Satisfied, Haku turned back to her bedroll and laid down, facing away from him. He sat back against the wall and brought out the paper to fold, half-paying attention to his hands and keeping a watchful eye on the surrounding area.

A few hours went by without anything noticeable happening. When he felt himself starting to slip back to sleep, a quick check of the time told him that he could swap in for Miriki. The other boy was sleeping soundly, and it took a few shakes to get him lucid. "Miriki. Your turn."

"Huh?"

It took everything Kame had to not slap him. "Miriki, you need to take your turn watching the area."

"Five more minutes…" Miriki smirked a little bit half-consciously.

Kame gave up. He lightly slapped his fellow genin across the face and barked, "Get up!" Miriki yelped and sat up quickly, blinking in confusion and pain. Finally his eyes settled on Kame, who could only glare.

"Ugh, fine." Miriki stood up and moved towards a smaller piece of rubble that he could sit on. Kame smiled and slid into his own cloth bedroll, falling asleep in minutes and losing himself once again to a dreamless void.

* * *

When Kame awoke for good, he found himself staring at four shinobi that he didn't recognize. Scrambling and nearly ripping his bedroll in confusion, he finally managed to dart backwards and drew a kunai, eyeing the newcomers warily and taking stock of the situation: they were still at the rubble of the Sand outpost. Haku was still asleep, Deihaka was standing off to the side, and Miriki was…

Miriki was talking calmly to the strangers. Kame lightened up a little bit, straightening up and stalking forward to where the conversation was taking place. When he heard what they were talking about, he felt himself blush and mentally swore to get Miriki back later.

"Tell me, are all the girls from the Village Hidden in the Valleys as beautiful as you are? They don't make 'em like you in the Sand…" He grinned at one of their kunoichi, who giggled and blushed, hiding behind her fingers but still staring at him.

Kame fully straightened and looked at the newcomers. It was clearly a team of Hidden Valley genin and their jonin kunoichi leader. Two of the genin looked similar, maybe twins, a boy and girl with the same dark-grey hair and eyes. The remaining genin, the girl Miriki was hitting on, was a shorter one with blonde hair and brown eyes. All three seemed fairly inexperienced and antsy.

The jonin was another story. Taller than even Deihaka, she had a massive scythe strapped to her back, whose haft was as tall as Kame was. Although she wore a normal Valley jonin's vest, underneath was a chainmail coat composed of some light, silvery metal. Most intimidating was the way she stood, with the easy confidence of someone who knew they could kill everything within twenty meters.

Miriki kept up the flirting. "You know, I sense something between us- a special connection. After I mop up whoever did this, you want to go to dinner?" Again, the girl giggled and blushed. He started to push his advantage, but was interrupted by Deihaka striding up to their jonin.

"Enough of this, Miriki."

The woman nodded towards her own charge. "Keikiro." The girl immediately backed away towards the other two Valley Genin, leaving the adults to stand facing each other in the central area.

Deihaka first broke the silence: "So, we've given you our interpretation of what happened here."

The other jonin nodded. "Yes, you have."

Miriki called out, "Do you babes think you could give us your names in exchange?"

Deihaka whipped around and stared daggers at the Kosuki boy, but their Valley counterparts seemed to take it well. The jonin pointed first at herself, saying "Senshiko", then at the blonde, "Keikiro", then at the male twin, "Gunaji", and the female, "Sagino". Deihaka replied with all of team eight's names (with a noticeable pause and sigh before Miriki's).

Senshiko frowned as she turned back to Deihaka, lowering her hand from her weapon but not dropping it fully to her side. "Yes, you've given us a report on your interpretation of events. But how am I to know that you didn't just capture my allies and escape with them? All the evidence you've listed supports that theory as well."

"No it doesn't." Kame felt compelled to speak up. "If we were the ones who did it, why would we do all of this? We could have simply pretended that we knew nothing. Destroying an outpost and setting up all this, just to divert blame onto some people who were originally from our village, is just plain foolish."

Gunaji tilted his head a little, staring at him intently, while the others considered his words. Senshiko pondered for a few moments, then grunted. "Fine. However, you will come along with us as we hunt down these supposed 'traitors'. Keikiro's clan specializes in tracking, and I'm confident that she can lead us to them."

Deihaka nodded. "Agreed, I also-" but he was talked over.

"Not so fast, I wasn't finished. If and when we catch your ex-comrades, they will be given straight to us for interrogation, understood? No tricks, no scapegoats, the ones who did this _will_ be punished." Senshiko's eyes hardened.

Deihaka was far more hesitant to agree to that one, but after visibly wrestling with the decision for a few seconds, he sighed. "Fine. You keep the prisoners."

Senshiko nodded, gesturing at the Keikiro girl to come forward. "We need to give her a moment to pick up the trail." With that, the two teams finally broke their standoff, moving forward to mingle. Sagino, the girl twin, winced a little bit when hopping down from her rock, and Miriki was on her instantly.

"Hey, Sagino, having a little trouble? Let me help you, eh..?"

She looked away from him. "No, just a little sore from the long walk here."

Miriki grinned at that. "Oh? I could have sworn it would have been from running through my dreams all night…" She smiled at him, and they walked off still talking.

Kame caught a glimpse of the brother, Gunaji, and flinched a little. He looked pissed, fists clenched at his sides and eyes locked in frustration on Miriki's back. _In other words, someone who I can relate with_ , Kame thought, approaching him while waving to get his attention. When the boy finally ripped his eyes off of Miriki, they lost their anger and he even smiled at Kame. "Hello, Sand Shi- I mean, Kame, wasn't it…?" he awkwardly put a hand behind his head. "So, I guess we're gonna be teaming up, huh?"

Kame nodded. "Yeah. Did you know the patrol that got taken?"

Gunaji shook his head. "No, but… I mean, does it matter? They're shinobi from my village that are in trouble; I have to help them."

Kame held up his hands in attempted pacification. "No, no, I didn't mean it like that… It's just, I wanted to know if they were strong, to get a good judge of what we're going to be up against, you know?"

The other boy nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I get it. I… don't know how strong they are. Senshiko-sensei wouldn't tell us much about them, but I get the impression that they weren't all that powerful. Then again, they were three chunin-rank ninja, so honestly I can't say."

"I guess we'll have to just proceed carefully until we're sure what we're dealing with," Kame replied. _Very carefully_ , he thought. Situations like this stressed him out; he never liked to walk into things not knowing what he was up against.

Right then, a voice rang out from the other side of the temple. "I've got something!" It was Keikiro; she must have found something that she could track. Their eight-person group convened around her. "That genjutsu-trap-thingy was pretty unique, and I got a reliable trail off of it," she said, before taking off towards the north.

Senshiko followed suite, calling back "Keikiro's tracking follows a chakra trail from a jutsu to the one who cast it, but it consumes the chakra in the process- we must depart immediately, or we will lose them." The others all grabbed what they had to and caught up quickly, so, shrugging, Kame took off after them.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Jonin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Jonin-Sensei Assignment Data: Deihaka Surakiri**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Commander (Kyaputen Kuyanari) Notes: _Mastery of the Magnet Style makes him difficult to match in the field of ninjutsu._

Genjutsu: B  
\- Commander (Kyaputen Kuyanari) Notes: _Although not a specialist, genjutsu is absolutely jonin-level._

Taijutsu: C  
\- Commander (Kyaputen Kuyanari) Notes: _High aptitude for ninjutsu and defensive capabilities mostly negate any need for taijutsu._

Appearance: _Age thirty-six._ _Average height (5'11"), relatively unathletic build with scraggly, unkempt appearance. Short and messy red hair similar to that of the Fourth Kazekage, brown eyes. Typically clad in jonin's vest over casual clothing, wears iron sand condensed into 1-meter-diameter circular plate on back._

Attitude: _Displays constant lack of motivation and reliance upon alchohol. Lacks the composure of other ninja of his caliber, yet proven to be able to compete with some of the strongest while on missions, in clear dissonance with his personality._

History: _After a short time in the academy unworthy of note, Deihaka remained a relatively unknown genin for years, apparently stagnating. However, despite behavioral issues that kept him from progressing in rank for several years, was recently promoted to jonin by the Kazekage's order. Had a brief, abnormal stint after his promotion of a perfect success rate on extremely difficult missions, but soon slipped back into mediocrity. Chosen once again by the Kazekage (perhaps indicating a relationship) this time to serve as a jonin-sensei for a genin squad._


	5. The Paragon

It was midday by the time the hunters finally stopped traveling. As they stopped to rest in a heavily wooded area, Kame wondered why- had they reached their targets, or had the trail gone cold? As the genin caught their breath, he noticed the two jonin split off to have a private conversation. His first instinct was to listen in, but then he remembered what had happened the last time he'd tried that.

Instead, he decided to approach Gunaji, who was sitting off to the side and beating on a stone with another implement. Trying to mask his confusion at what the other boy was doing, he called out, "Hey, Gunaji." The Valley genin nodded at him. "What are you... doing?"

Gunaji looked down at the rocks in his hand, then back at Kame. Suddenly, realization seemed to dawn over his face and he smiled, raising both hands to show their contents. "My clan, the Kokuseki, use a specific kind of Earth Style jutsu. It… well, I don't want to give you all of my secrets, but it gets significantly stronger with sharper rocks. I recently found out that this specific kind of stone will shatter like glass when broken, which allows it to get sharper than any other type of stone I've come across." Kame looked at the raised hands. Inside of the right one was a black, glassy rock with chips missing, and in the other one was actually a battered piece of steel that might have once been a kunai.

Kame smiled. _He's an inventor, too_ , he thought, happy to have found a kindred spirit. He decided to sit down beside Gunaji, pulling out a piece of practice paper and trying different folds to see if anything would occur to him. They sat in calm silence for a good four or five minutes, until the jonin finished their discussion and called for the attention of their charges.

"Okay, you all, listen up. We are now going forward into what is probably enemy territory," Deihaka said. "Me and Senshiko are gonna make up the front, with Kame and Gunaji holding the rear. The rest of you all need to keep within that formation and follow our orders. Remember, you might be genin, but this is the real world. Any fuck-up could be your last."

"Language," Senshiko chided, before detaching her scythe from her back and turning towards the direction they'd been traveling before the stop. "We're going." Kame rose up, pocketing the paper and trying to clear his mind in preparation for what lay ahead. He watched as the other students each rose and made their way into the formation described by their leaders.

Then they started, and Kame had to focus completely on what surrounded him. The trees of the forest were dense, and he had to carefully scan every inch for movement to be sure that nobody was hiding in them. It was a difficult task, and not for the first time in his life he wished he had some sort of visual kekkeigenkai to aid him.

Suddenly, their group stopped. Kame allowed his eyes to drift forward to what lay before them, which was a cavern, fortified with a huge iron door that covered it completely. The jonin were stopped in front of it, and he saw Deihaka reach forward, presumably to attempt the magnet release. However, nothing happened.

Kame decided to step forward, reaching into his pocket. _As long as they're made of steel_ , he thought, _I should be able to break them with a controlled blast_ -

Then he heard a kunai whistle past his head. The next few seconds were a blur of motion as their group split, turning to face the enemy behind them, while Kame silently cursed himself for letting himself get distracted micro-managing the jonins' tasks. A loud hiss cut through the noise, and he looked down in horror to see that the thrown knife had a paperbomb attached to it. He tried to dodge backward but knew in the back of his head that he wouldn't make it, when suddenly an impact of iron sand against his chest threw him backwards barely a split second before he felt the second impact of the blast.

Instead of crashing against the ground, he met with a softer crash against a human- Haku had caught him. She then dumped him on the ground unceremoniously and darted to the side, leaving him with a statement that shook him from his stupor- "Kame, pull your weight!"

 _She's right_ , he thought as he straightened up and got back on his feet. _I was picked to make up the rear guard because of my talent, and now I'm just being useless._ He refocused on the situation, taking everything he could: there were at least two enemy ninja in the treeline surrounding the clearing they were in, and the door remained sealed, but everyone besides Deihaka had bolted from the exposed area into the trees.

A cry sounded out from the treeline, and then a large patch of leaves exploded to reveal a ninja dressed all in green, impaled on the end of Senshiko's scythe. The polished steel blade of her weapon was now glowing with pure white light. She withdrew the weapon in one smooth movement, dumping the corpse of the green-clad ninja onto the ground, then leaped down beside it and decapitated it to make sure the job was done, ignoring a flurry of shuriken that simply bounced off of the heavy silvery chain on her back.

Meanwhile, Haku was dodging a few kunai coming from a larger tree, from which also flew a barrage of projectiles directed at Deihaka. The jonin simply made a shield from his iron sand, blocking the attack, and then the projectiles rose up from the ground to fly straight back where they'd emerged, although no cry of pain heralded a successful hit.

Miriki, Gunaji, Keikiro, and Sagino all held positions around the treeline, scanning for an opening but focusing mostly on defense and dodging. Kame took in a deep breath before forming his plan, then yanked a folded piece of paper from a pouch, finished a final crease, and in one smooth motion flung it towards Haku and Deihaka's assailants' tree. Without even pausing, he threw two more at the ground underneath it and readied two kunai knives.

The first plane he detonated immediately as it entered the tree, and it exploded in a spray of napalm. The wood quickly caught fire, and right on queue, two forms fell from the branches, right onto his settled second set of airplanes. Another handsign detonated those, forcing the two enemy ninja to dodge upwards into the air, and then he unleashed his finisher, flinging both kunai at their targets. In the air, mid-dodge, they'd never be able to avoid the sharp blades.

However, he realized his miscalculation when the kunai met only wood. _A substitution jutsu!_ Kame was annoyed at failing to plan around one of the basic three jutsu. _Of course they would know it; how the hell could I expect them not to?_ A yell sounded out from just over his head, and then a green ninja flew by and landed painfully on the forest floor, followed immediately by Haku. She slammed an arm into the man's head, hard enough to make Kame wince, and then moved on as he collapsed unconscious.

That was most likely one of the two from earlier who'd substituted out, which left one more that he knew of, although… Gunaji and Keikiro both deflected shuriken, confirming his suspicions that there were indeed more enemy ninja who'd simply remained hidden. His total of known ninja was reduced back down to one, however, when a shrieking figure launched out of a tree and out into the open air. Before they could fall, Senshiko leaped out and swung her scythe around in an arc that glowed with silver. "Arc of the Crescent Moon!" The kunoichi landed athletically, followed by the two halves of her target.

Kame realized that, despite the initial ambush, his allies had the situation under control. He turned his thoughts back to the gate holding them out of the base and most likely covering their enemies' retreat. _If the magnet release didn't work, then there's probably some sort of chakra nullification effect in play_ , he thought, considering his options carefully. Theoretically, that shouldn't prevent him from using paperbombs, as by the time they exploded all of the chakra had been converted into pure kinetic energy.

He reached into his pack as he darted towards the iron doors, pulling out some normal paper bombs (the sort he used to make the planes was better for folding than attaching). He plastered an area in the middle of the left gate, making sure to aim the blasts inward and shaping them so that they would form a controlled zone of destruction. After pressing twelve of them onto the door, forming a rough archway, he backed away.

After a cursory check to ensure that no allies were too close, he signed, and a massive boom accompanied by a deceptively small burst of smoke shook the clearing. For the briefest moment, there was pause in the combat as the participants reoriented themselves to the new situation, and then Senshiko's scythe cut through the base of a branch and dropped a green-clad shinobi directly in front of her on the ground.

After she gutted that one, Kame relaxed slightly- every enemy shinobi who'd attacked was accounted for. Haku had dropped one, Senshiko had gotten three- _no, four_ , he corrected, as she stepped over to remove the head of the one Haku had knocked out- and the remaining one had been taken out by Deihaka. The new hole in the gate was jagged but wide enough for them to get in through, although through it Kame could only see darkness. Entering into that with no clue what was behind it seemed like a terrible plan- unfortunately, he didn't have a better one.

Senshiko nodded at him, which gave him a little surge of pride- to be recognized, no, to be _praised_ by a jonin-level ninja was very satisfyng. She raised her kama, shouting "Glow of the Full Moon!" and the weapon's crescent-moon blade instantly began to shine too brightly to even look directly at. Light in hand, she then charged directly through the hole and into the enemy stronghold. When no sound but her echoing footsteps came from the entrance, Sagino and Gunaji both trailed her in. Kame started towards it as well, seeing Haku doing the same.

Deihaka stopped Keikiro and Miriki before they could enter. "You two are to stay out here and watch for any other enemies. If you're attacked from the trees and can't win the fight, enter the base and find us. If enemies come from within the base or we don't come back out within an hour, you will have to go back to your villages and give a full report, understood?" They both nodded, eyes flickering to each other briefly. _Why those two?_ Kame thought. _If they're left together they'll pay more attention to each other than to their jobs._

However, he couldn't very well just challenge Deihaka's orders right then and there, so he just shrugged and entered the base behind Haku. Inside, by the dim light from the hole and the much brighter light from Senshiko's blade, he was able to make out some detail. The inside of the cave was rough, unhewn stone, with only the floor being flattened somewhat. Crates of ninja tools and other items lined the walls, stacked haphazardly and some even spilling out onto the ground.

More ominous were the occasional bloodstains splattered around the place. As they continued at a rapid pace down the long passage and deeper into the cave, there started to be less crates and more normal items and possessions. Clearly someone here had cleared out in a hurry, leaving behind half-eaten food and still-burning torches. After what felt like a kilometer of passage, they finally reached a wide-open space that seemed like an arena, a large circular area with gateways in the walls. Senshiko motioned for them to stop, then pointed at herself and at the open forward path. ' _I'll go ahead alone_.'

Kame dropped back and calmed his nerves. He paid close attention to what happened next- Senshiko was walking into a probable trap in order to clear the way for their group. As she strode forward in a defensive stance, loud clacking sounded out from somewhere he couldn't see, and then everything happened incredibly quickly. A massive form charged at her, body moving so fast it was almost a blur, while another one dropped from above. She yelled out something indiscernible, and a flash of light so bright it felt searing to his exposed skin blasted out from her.

As he blinked the bright lights from his eyes and tried to refocus on the events unfolding within the arena, the situation gradually grew clear to him. Deihaka, who had somehow avoided being blinded by the initial blast, was now standing inside the arena beside Senshiko. Arrayed around them were three… _demons_ was the only word he could think of. Humanoid in shape, but with grossly mutated bodies, they must have emerged from the arena gates.

One, the massive one, was at least three meters tall and thicker than any person. It had dark grey skin, the horns of a bull, and huge hooves instead of feet. Another hovered overhead, thin beyond malnourishment, with sticklike limbs and compound eyes covering too much of its face. Twin wings beat faster than he could track with his eyes to keep it in the air. The third one was a normal height, but with thick limbs and dark reddish fur covering its entire body. Huge claws poked out of the ends of its arms, and eyes glowed red from beneath the fur on its head.

Despite their monstrous forms, there were still torn rags that might have once been clothes on them. Their eyes twitched around, taking in the situation with more than animal intelligence. _What the hell are these things?_ Kame spared a glance around, seeing the broken gates and even more bloodstains littering the strangely arena-like area. _What is this place?_

He noticed Haku striding forward and decided to follow along, keeping his eyes on the the three monsters in case they tried another attack. For long moments all the ninja in the room remained silent, making no attacks, and then the short beast broke it by diving down into the ground with some sort of tunneling jutsu. Senshiko cried out and charged forward, swinging the scythe forward at the horned foe, while Deihaka released a barrage of iron sand projectiles at the flying one.

Kame drew a kunai and quietly planned as best as he could. With more allies than enemies locked in close quarters combat like this, paperbombs would be a poor idea. His best bet was probably to wait for openings to get in some projectile weapons-

"Kame, dodge! Now!" A split-second reaction to Deihaka's shouted order was barely enough to save his life. As he rolled and came back up into a crouch, he saw that behind him stood three chunin in the Hidden Sand's uniform. Deihaka, upon taking a longer glance at them, yelled at him: "Get back, now! Kame, do not fight them, leave them to me!"

Kame obeyed, backing up and remaining defensive. One of them, probably the leader, spoke in a loud voice to someone that Kame couldn't see, up above them. "Sankuryu, you idiot, they _all_ got through your outer defenses?" He pulled out a kunai. "Oh well, looks like I get to deal with them all myself. Lucky me…" He trailed off, glancing around the battlefield at the combat still happening. "Wow, you brought two whole teams? Two jonin? I feel real special, guys!"

Kame swallowed. Despite the man's obnoxious talking, the situation was still deadly serious. With three more enemies to deal with, their numbers were now even- but three chunin and three monsters probably had the advantage over four genin and two jonin. _Can we really hope to win and all survive this?_

The man's face brightened up a bit as he apparently realized something."Hey, wait a second… two jonin? That makes us an A-rank mission!"

 _What is he talking about? Is he seriously thinking about that in the middle of a battle!?_ While Kame was still processing those words, a shuriken whipped forward from the chunin's hand. Kame barely had time to dodge it, but while dodging, one of the other two ninja was already upon him, kunai coming straight at his neck. _Shit!_ Kame thought, _I don't have time to dodge it!_ He had to use his last line of defense, then. Making a sign in his right hand, he detonated the windbomb hidden underneath his genin vest.

To say it felt like he'd been kicked in the chest would be an understatement. In reality, the paperbomb went off and he simply went flying as though he'd been shot from a cannon. The other ninja was flung back, not as hard, and slammed into the far wall, while Kame hit the ground, _very_ hard, and rolled to a stop. He tried to get up, but there was overwhelming pain from his chest- he might have broken a rib.

 _At least I'm still alive_ , he thought, grimacing and forcing himself to his feet. He was now on the other side of the fight from the sand chunin, watching as Haku dodged their attacks and gradually managed to get closer and closer to them in between evasive moves. However, he saw something on the earth in front of her and managed to yell out "Haku! Your feet!" before his voice disappeared into pained coughing. He'd definitely broken a rib.

She looked down and at the last second seemed to understand his warning. When the mole creature punched up through the ground and swiped at her, she was prepared for it and dodged under its claw, then grabbed it by the arm and flipped it over her shoulder towards the gathered Sand Chunin. They managed to dodge the monster, but then one yelled in pain as a black projectile punched into his leg. Kame turned to see Gunaji throwing two more of his black stones into the air, then appearing to concentrate as they flew forwards towards the already-injured target.

Kame formulated a quick plan based on how the three Sand chunin were grouping up constantly. Although it gave them strength as a united team, it also gave him an idea, but he'd have to swallow his pain to get it done. As he darted off, rounding the arena perimeter on his way back to the archway that they'd entered through, his focus drifted back towards the fight. Sagino was using some sort of jutsu that apparently hardened her skin, as she appeared to made completely of stone as she ran forwards to engage the chunin. Gunaji was keeping up his assault with the sharpened rocks, preventing them from focusing on his sister. Deihaka was trading even with the flying buglike demon, dodging and having his attacks dodged equally.

Senshiko was a different story, though, as her kama was making short work of the horned creature. Large it may have been, but her strikes were chipping away at its defense and it didn't even have any real openings to attack. The mole-like digging creature punched out of the earth beside the kunoichi, but before it could land a hit Haku came flying from a few meters away and pounded a fist into it hard enough to launch it a good ten meters and crunch it into the far wall.

Then Kame was at his destination, and he walked back into the passageway (carefully trying not to put any more stress on his shattered rib) until he found what he was looking for. _There it is,_ he thought as he charged over to stop beside a shattered crate lid. Lifting it up, he reached into his pouch and began plastering it with paperbombs as quickly as his slightly shaking hands could. Once he'd covered it well enough, he turned back towards the fight.

The situation had worsened in his absence. Deihaka and Senshiko's respective opponents had swapped, leaving Senshiko outranged and Deihaka outmuscled. The mole was being more careful with its emergences, and actually caught Haku with a sweeping strike the next time it popped up. Kame knew that if he was going to act, he had to act now. With a yell, he ran straight at the grouped chunin, defiantly pulling a kunai and sprinting at them. Their leader turned to face him and Kame could actually see the man's thought process through his expressions: ' _What the- oh, it's one of the genin, thinking they can charge in like a hero. What an idiot_.'

Kame actually made it almost all the way to them before one of them flicked a shuriken towards his face. With a smirk, he waited until it was almost upon him, reaching out to the piece of wood with his chakra and…

"Substitution!" he swapped places with it, now standing outside the arena's entrance while his paperbomb-covered crate lid sailed into the midst of his foes.. One more handsign remotely activated all of the explosives on the wood, and the sound of a loud blast followed by a few anguished cries of pain told him all he needed to know about what had happened. Limping now due to his pain, he saw that they'd all three been taken out in the blast, but two of them (impressively) had survived it. When the leader shifted and groaned, Kame stumbled back a step- _Is he still conscious?_ The man started to sit up, but then another figure appeared behind him, a tall, bald, and muscular ninja wearing only a pair of dark baggy pants.

The newcomer swung a hand around and, in a single smooth movement, decapitated their own ally.

Kame froze in horror as the figure efficiently did the same to the other two before straightening up and yawning, turning to face the Valley and Sand forces. Their face was as clean-shaven as their head and arms, dark eyes peering at the combatants in a bored manner, but their voice was in line with neither their appearance nor their actions. In a calm, almost soothing tone, the man spoke out across the battle, his words somehow penetrating through everything else. "I'm going to ask you once to lie down and die. I'm not a fan of Lord Orochimaru's penchant for turning everything into an experiment, so I'm offering you one chance for a clean death."

Gunaji scoffed. "You really expect us to just roll over and drop dead for you? Plus, thanks for telling us who you're working for without even being interrogated."

The man sighed. "So, experimentation it is, then. Taking people alive is such a burden… but for you, my Lord Orochimaru, I bear it." He started to walk forward, hands still empty and without any visible defense. The sight of a man so exposed, yet so clearly confident, sent Kame's nerves into overdrive. "As for you knowing who was in charge of this place, well," he chuckled. "All of you will either die right here and now, or during experimentation in the coming months."

Deihaka stepped forward from their group. "Back off _right now_ , you all. This is one of Orochimaru's strongest known disciples, Sankuryu the Untouchable. He's far above your skills." He turned and Kame could immediately tell from his expression how deadly serious this situation was. "Deal with the mutated ones, and leave this man to me and Senshiko."

Sankuryu laughed a little bit. "Do you really think you can save them? You never should have brought these... _children_ into this place, Deihaka of the Iron Sand. And you…" he looked at Senshiko. "I know your abilities all _too_ well, Senshiko of the Hidden Valley."

In response, she just leveled her scythe at him, striding forward to stand beside Deihaka. Then Kame had to rip his eyes from the standoff to pay attention to his own fight as the ground beside him shuddered. He leaped to the side, but made sure to drop a paperbomb on the ground where he'd stood. When the mole creature predictably appeared, he detonated it, drawing a screech of rage from the creature. By the time that the smoke cleared, Gunaji was already there, all three of his rock shards punching forward into the demon's flesh.

Haku shouted from across the room, "Can someone take this flying thing on?" _Crap, that's right, she doesn't really have any ranged options_ , Kame thought as he turned his attention to it. He tossed a few kunai to keep it dodging while he made his way across the room, also taking a moment to take stock of the other fights. Deihaka and Senshiko appeared to be more than holding their own against Sankuryu, although they did seem to be dodging rather than blocking all of his strikes.

He rapidly threw together two paper airplanes and launched them forward. The fly creature must have had some sixth sense, because it dodged them as though it knew what they did. Thankfully, he still had a good fifty more sheets of paper bombs remaining, having restocked before leaving on the mission, and didn't let up on his barrage, clearing space for Haku to move over and attack the bull with Sagino.

Five more airplanes were all dodged with ease, and the creature was actually managing to close the distance between them. Eyeing its disproportionately long fingers and claws, Kame decided that it would be a very poor idea to allow it into melee range- but when he threw another airplane, he noticed it start its dodge immediately when he released the plane, and smiled. His trap was complete.

Kame rapidly drew another piece of paper, but this time _unfolded_ two steps and replaced them with new creases. He backed away a few painful steps, took aim, and launched it when his enemy was only about five meters away from him. As expected, comfortable in the pattern of his previous attacks, the fly buzzed upward to dodge over it. However, this plane was different- instead of flying straight like the others, he'd folded it to angle _up_.

The fly creature had only half a second to realize its mistake before he detonated the plane and blasted its body halfway across the cavern. It didn't make any attempt to get up, so Kame looked over at the other fights. Haku and Sagino had managed to beat down the bull, and in a final devastating flurry took it down, hopefully for good. The mole, which had never recovered from his trap earlier, fell to Gunaji's focused piercing attacks, leaving Sankuryu as the only enemy alive.

Then Kame made the mistake of relaxing and stopping to reduce stress on his injured rib, and once again his laziness proved costly. Deihaka and Senshiko must have made a mistake, because suddenly Sankuryu was upon him, one flattened hand swinging around in an arc. Deihaka yelled "Dodge!" desperately, and Kame did all he _could_ do, pushing himself in a barely-controlled fall backwards and downwards.

As a result, the attack that might have opened his stomach merely grazed his chest- but something was wrong. Where his attacker's fingertips had merely brushed, the vest and shirt were torn open, along with a large gash in his chest. His rib screaming, he felt himself start to pass out, fighting against it with all he had. The best he could do was remain conscious as he toppled to the stone cavern floor.

Sankuryu's other arm arced downwards towards him, and he knew that this time he wouldn't be able to dodge. He also knew that no one was nearby enough to help him- _Is this really how it ends? My first mission as a genin!?_ He closed his eyes, uselessly raising an arm in defense…

Then there was a flash, and he opened his eyes to see Haku standing over him, crackling with electricity and with a fist still extended from her punch. Sankuryu had been flung backwards by her attack, and landed without taking his eyes off of them. Haku crackled a little more, and then darted straight over Kame and landed another strike, a kick against the man's clothed upper thigh, forcing him a step or two backwards. The missing-nin narrowed his eyes and then sighed.

"You're not what you appear to be, are you? I'll have to speak to Lord Orochimaru about this. Don't worry, though, I'll find you all again soon enough." He drew what appeared to be a piece of paper from his pocket and then disappeared into thin air, leaving the gathered Valley and Sand ninja alone in the stronghold.

 _Huh, we actually did… it…_ Kame thought, just as the pain from his chest and rib grew too strong and he blacked out completely.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Jonin) (Hidden Valley):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Jonin-Sensei Assignment Data: Senshiko Nagakura**

Ninjutsu: B  
\- Commander (Sugeko Kokuseki) Notes: _Jonin-tier, otherwise unremarkable_

Genjutsu: B  
\- Commander (Sugeko Kokuseki) Notes: _Jonin-tier, otherwise unremarkable_

Taijutsu: A  
\- Commander (Sugeko Kokuseki) Notes: _Special use of scythe and addition of clan moonlight techniques easily put her among the top ranks of jonin_

Appearance: _Age thirty-four._ _Very tall height (6'3"), highly athletic build. Silver hair and eyes typical to clan, usually clad in gray Valley jonin vest over silver chain armor with large scythe strapped to back._

Attitude: _Absolutely loyal to village, ruthlessly efficient, but also known to go beyond bounds of missions in order to deliver what she perceives to be necessary justice, possibly a trend within clan. No record of misconduct found over career thus far._

History: _Heir to the Nagakura clan, mastered their techniques at a young enough age to be considered a genius. After early admission to Valley Shinobi Academy, achieved rank genin at age 10, chunin at age 13, and jonin at age 17. Exceptional mission success rate as well as client satisfaction rate. Obvious choice as a jonin-sensei for upcoming genin squads._


	6. The Ambitious

Kame blinked his way back into the waking world, wincing a little as sunlight blazed into his eyes. When he tried to raise an arm to shield himself from it, a bolt of pain shot through him and then he remembered he'd been hurt in that last fight. Looking down, he saw that someone had bandaged up his chest. His attention was taken away from his own misery, though, by another realization- Haku had saved his life, and had used some sort of lightning style technique.

On that note, Miriki was suddenly crouching in front of him. "Hey, sleeping beauty, what's up? You feeling any better?" Kame gritted his teeth and slowly tilted his head forward. "I hear you broke the ol' rib, huh?" Miriki patted Kame's chest and he gasped in pain.

"Get away from me," Kame hissed.

"Hey, hey, no need to be all hostile," Miriki chuckled, "Just because you got taken out on your first mission. I'm sure you'll do better next time. Not everyone can get out without a scratch like yours truly."

"You didn't even- Agh!" Kame tensed again. So shouting _was_ out of the question. "-Go into the base, you moron."

"I avoided a dangerous situation and let the grunts deal with it. That's called tactical intelligence, buddy." Miriki's smirk spread even wider, and Kame was very close to doing something he'd probably regret. However, Gunaji walked over and took Miriki by the shoulder, winking at Kame before dragging off his annoying teammate. Kame made a mental note to thank him for that later.

With a bit of trial and error, he managed to get up without hurting himself. If he stood favoring his left side, then the right rib's pain was kept to a minimum. _I have no clue what they did to that cut on my chest,_ he thought, _but it feels like it's barely there now._ A cursory inspection of his surrounding revealed that they were back in the sheltered area where they'd stopped pre-attack, and only Gunaji, Miriki, Keikiro, and Sagino were in sight.

That changed as Deihaka, Senshiko, and Haku walked around a large stone into view, with Haku looking more happy than he'd seen her. When she saw him, her expression changed to worry and she jogged over to him. "Are you… doing okay? You're standing now."

Kame nodded. "Yeah. Uhmm…" he trailed off awkwardly, unsure how to proceed and ashamed of how she'd had to save him from injury or worse multiple times. Out of six genin on the mission, he was painfully aware that he was the _only_ one to suffer meaningful damage. Half his mind wanted to ignore her and the reality of his incompetence that her face reminded him of, and the other half screamed at him to thank her for saving his life, but neither voice was strong enough to overpower the other, so he ended up simply looking at her impassively for a good few seconds until he reached a decision: _I'll pay her back on another mission. Actions speak louder than words._

Haku seemed concerned as she searched for something from him, evidently not finding it and turning away dejectedly just as Deihaka approached them: "Kame, you're up, good. Tell me, can you travel?"

"Yes." He could probably manage a decent pace, even with the injuries, if he made sure not to put weight on them.

"Great. We're heading back to the Hidden Sand today, mission's over."

Kame was still confused about something. "But wait, Deihaka-sensei. What about the missing Valley ninja? Weren't we also supposed to find them?"

Gunaji stepped up and answered. "We did. While you were downed, we went through the place. It looks like some sort of preliminary laboratory of Orochimaru's, where they tested and prepped people before they were sent to another facility, although we got nothing on the location of that one. There was also a logbook, which told us everything we needed to know.

"Apparently they'd started offering a reward for kidnapped ninja and civilians, which _your_ Sand chunin were providing for them regularly. The whole reason our patrol went to that outpost in the first place was the string of suspicious disappearances in our villages near the border. Then, Orochimaru upped the ante and offered your traitors high-level positions in his organization in exchange for three chunin-level Hidden Valley ninja.

"You know what happened next. Our people went in to investigate them, got captured, and were taken to this place. What we didn't know was that they were tested on almost immediately. Those three beasts that we fought in there? Those were once Valley shinobi." Gunaji sounded bitter, and Kame could only hope that he would hold it against Orochimaru, rather than the Hidden Sand.

Senshiko frowned and chimed in. "It's troubling to see three ninja weaponized and made loyal so quickly. Orochimaru has always had a way with drawing strong but troubled ninja to his cause, but it's usually through corruption or tainted whispers, like the snake he is. The thought of him possessing a jutsu capable of turning even the most steadfast of our own allies against us is a deeply troubling one."

"Like Sasuke." Naruto Uzumaki, Gaara, and Sasuke Uchiha were the three ninja that Kame had researched most thoroughly. In his opinion, they were the three strongest ninja of the modern age. "Orochimaru... is he really so much of a threat? I haven't heard much about him relevant to our village…"

Deihaka chuckled a little bit. "That's because they don't want to tell you the miserable truth. Orochimaru absolutely _thwonked_ the Fourth-" he coughed, realizing the raw unprofessionalism he'd just exhibited, and then corrected himself: "Orochimaru, ah, _defeated_ the Fourth Kazekage in combat, then impersonated him and led us into a disaster of a war with the Hidden Leaf. No one mentions it because it's too embarrassing to admit that one dude nearly brought two of the Five Great Villages to their knees, but it's the truth."

Kame grew annoyed. A pet peeve of his was when people would rather cover up their errors than learn from them. _Turns out the entire village is like that,_ he thought. Before their conversation could go any further, Senshiko yelled, "Valley genin! Pack up, we're leaving!"

Deihaka shrugged and waited for Miriki to come over to their little group. "Okay, that's all three of you. We're heading back to the Sand now, but first I feel like I should... I don't know, grade you, or something."

"What?" Miriki and Kame said it at the same time, but while Miriki's tone was bemused, Kame's was all horror. Would this performance go down on his record as a ninja forever?

Deihaka grinned- Kame's chagrin must have been written all over his face. "No, no, this isn't anything formal, I just want to let you how you did." Turning towards Miriki, he said, "Miriki: you did exactly what I asked you to without messing anything up. I give you an A." Then towards Haku, "You held your own pretty damn well in there for a genin, but I did see you take a couple hits you should have been able to dodge… I give you a B." Finally, he looked at Kame. "You fucked up multiple times, and without me and Haku bailing you out you would've died at least three times. C-Minus."

Kame really, _really_ wanted to scream at him about how he'd helped a thousand times more than Miriki had, and had the hardest jobs, but instead he swallowed his pride and anger, simply nodding. "Yes, Deihaka-sensei." The jonin smiled and then pointed towards the west.

"Good, then let's head out."

* * *

It took them longer to return, mostly because of Kame's weakened state, but eventually they made it. The sun was setting, and after they all said their goodbyes Kame made a beeline straight for his house. His parents had already left for their next round on the border, leaving him alone (but also leaving him a plate of sushi in their refrigerator). After chowing down on dinner, he started to head off to bed but before he could there was a knock at the door.

Opening it, Kame found himself staring at two Sand ANBU members, both standing seemingly casually but also noticeably holding weapons at their sides. They appeared to take stock of him, then the one on the right spoke in a harsh, authoritative voice: "Kame Hakiara. You are to accompany us to the detention center, we need to ask you a few questions."

Kame subconsciously backed away a few steps, but stopped when the speaker raised their knife. "Any attempt to flee or fight will be treated as capital treason. If you have any protests, you can voice them once we have taken you in." He had little choice but to follow them, feeling incredibly exposed and embarrassed in his Shukaku the Onetail pajamas. As he left, he realized that he had none of his weapons or ninja tools with him.

The detention center was inside the West Bastion, which, not abandoned like its northern cousin, was and always had been the base for Hidden Sand Interior Defense. After trekking deep inside through several tunnels dimly lit by flickering fluorescent ceiling lights, they finally they reached a security gate of some sort, where a non-ANBU security officer disabled a chakra wall to allow them even deeper still. Once through the door, they immediately took him to into a holding cell and gestured for him to sit down on a metal chair in front of a table.

A few minutes of painful silence passed before a newcomer came in to sit across from him, shuffling through a few files before dropping them onto the table and looking straight at him. It was a woman, probably middle-aged, but with a hard face and piercing steel-grey eyes. She wore the grey-collared vest of a Hidden Sand interior defense shinobi- was this an interrogation? _Do they think I'm a spy!?_ His thoughts raced, theories multiplying by the second. _Is this because of when I listened in on the Kazekage? Maybe they're curious about the outpost mission? Deihaka-sensei told me I was off the hook for spying on that conversation; did something change!? What if-_

"Suspect! Hello?" A crabby voice yanked him from his mind and back into the cold room. The woman was still staring at him. "If you don't respond, I'm going to have to _make_ you respond." _Oh, shit-_ she'd been talking to him!

"Yes! Yes, I'm listeni- sorry. I'm sorry. What is it you want to know? I'm happy to comply with your investigation!" Kame utterly failed to hide his nervousness, his voice even cracking slightly at the very end of his sputtered response.

The woman exchanged a glance with one of the ANBU before looking back at him. "Ugh, it's a squealer. Stop whimpering, as long as you answer everything honestly you won't be tortured… probably." She then made a few handsigns, still talking. "Due to several recent and not-so-recent events, you are under suspicion as a spy. This genjutsu will force you to answer honestly to all of my questions. If you make any attempt to release it, we will resort to good old-fashioned torture." She looked far too interested in that outcome.

Kame swallowed and tried his best to not stutter in his answer. "I'll do it- I mean, I'm-" Something strange happened- before he could say 'I'm happy to do it', his throat closed up. The woman must have finished her genjutsu already, preventing him from lying about how much he _didn't_ want to be there.

She shrugged, disappointment evident as she continued "Fine, if you want to be no fun at all and do it willingly, go right ahead. Now: Have you ever made meaningful contact with shinobi of another village and not reported it?"

Kame gritted his teeth, the Valley ninja he'd just met fit that description. "Yes, but-"

He was cut off. "Have you ever acted against the rules of the Hidden Sand Village?"

"Grk-" _What? When have I ever tried to sabotage the Hidden Sand?_ Then realization dawned over him- _The academy graduation! I cheated to help Haku…_ "Yes, I have."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Have you ever gathered Hidden Sand information that you were not supposed to have access to?"

"I… Yes." When he'd eavesdropped on Gaara's conversation.

The woman now seemed highly suspicious. "Did you share this information with _anyone_ not affiliated with the Hidden Sand?"

Kame sighed in relief. "No, I didn't."

"Have you ever performed any actions with the intent of negatively affecting the Village Hidden in the Sand?"

"No."

She grunted, reading something off of the paper underneath her, before asking him another question. "Have you ever, through action or inaction, brought or allowed harm to one of your comrades when you could have prevented it?"

 _Haku in the alleyway._ "Yes."

The woman's beady eyes narrowed and Kame felt an odd sense of danger from her as she kept going: "Do you place the people of the Village Hidden in the Sand highest in your priorities? Would you give yours and anyone else's lives for them?"

Kame tried to say yes, but once again his throat closed. Suddenly, all he could see in his mind was Tetsute and Rakuyo beating Haku, adults and children shunning her since childhood. He thought of the three chunin who abandoned their posts and kidnapped innocents, of the stories he'd heard about Gaara and Sasori's childhoods, and finally he reached his decision. "No."

He heard the two ANBU members shift behind him, and the woman raised an eyebrow. "Who do you really work for? Who are you loyal to?"

"The Kazekage." It was true.

"Why, then, would you say that you do not care about the people of the Hidden Sand?" She seemed ready to jump to the torture option at any moment, and Kame made sure to choose his next words carefully.

"I do, but... many of them are flawed people." Kame was reeling a little bit at these revelations within his head- he'd always prided himself on his loyalty and moral compass, but it seemed that those two didn't work together any more. _I wonder which one the great shinobi choose,_ he thought. _Village, or morality? Or do they never have to choose?_

Suddenly, the door to the room opened and Deihaka was standing there. "Naziru, what are you doing?"

She turned to face him with the faintest trace of a smile on her lips. "Interrogating a fugitive, of course. What does it look like?"

"It looks like you just grabbed one of my students and yanked him in here for a pointless waste of time." Deihaka crossed his arms. "The village already thoroughly vetted every member of his family. He's clean."

"I don't know, Deihaka of the _Iron Hand_ , it seems to me like you're picking favorites here. This Sand shinobi is from a clan new to the village, already has a registered event of espionage on his record, and honestly told me that he doesn't care about the people of the Hidden Sand." At her use of the 'Iron Hand' name, Deihaka grimaced- was it an inside insult?

His squad leader simply shook his head. "I don't care what you think it looks like, I'm pulling rank. You will release Kame and clear the charges immediately."

The woman laughed a little bit at that. "Haven't you heard, Deihaka? Genku was just murdered in cold blood inside of the Kazekage's own offices. We're now in a state of full security lockdown, which means _I_ outrank _you_." She straightened her papers and stood suddenly. "Don't worry, your boy isn't convicted- _yet_ \- so he can return to his home under ANBU guard."

Deihaka gritted his teeth but cleared out of the way to let the ANBU agents escort Kame out of the compound. They followed him to his house, stopping outside and delivering a short warning: "We'll be watching you constantly until this situation resolves. If you attempt to flee, we will hunt you down."

Kame had a difficult time getting to sleep that night.

* * *

The next morning started off miserably, as a sleep-deprived Kame rolled himself out of bed and winced as he realized his entire morning routine would ostensibly be done under the watchful gaze of Hidden Sand ANBU. He unenthusiastically made his bed, cooked up a quick breakfast, and pondered what the day could hold, assuming he wouldn't be allowed on missions while under suspicion for the murder of Genku. However, upon opening the single letter he'd received overnight, all of the sluggishness fled from his mind and body as he had to restrain himself from jumping for joy, aware of how dumb it would look to those keeping him under surveillance.

Instead he pumped a fist and made no effort to restrain the spreading ecstatic smile from covering his face: He'd been accepted to study Puppet Jutsu under Kankuro, with the first class that very day at 8:30 AM.

Given that it was 8:00 already, Kame hastily threw on his ninja gear and immediately headed out the door, mind racing with possibilities and hopes for his new teacher. The brother of the Kazekage was both extremely old and extremely reclusive, and had long since ceased to take missions. All sorts of rumors circulated about the man, but Kame wasn't the type to remember social gossip- all he cared about were the stories of what Kankuro had been like as an active shinobi, and those were extremely entertaining. After first losing to Sasori but later claiming the Akatsuki member's legendary puppet body for himself, Kankuro had gone on to an illustrious career as the Kazekage's right-hand-man. His success had inspired a wave of rejuvenated interest in the Puppet Style, and he'd taken on many a student in his years as a jonin-sensei, yet...

After he'd retired, Kankuro had seen scores of applicants for apprenticeships and apparently rejected them all, some (like Kame) sight unseen. Kame was... well, _excited_ , to say the least, that he'd been offered a chance to learn the Puppet Style from its greatest living user after all. It was one of a select few jutsu specialties unique to the Hidden Sand, which had less kekkeigenkai than most other villages- but one more thing that excited Kame about the Puppet Style was that it had no kekkeigenkai involved. Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Shamon, Lady Chiyo, Sasori, and even Kankuro had all been able to achieve greatness with no genetic upper hand, only the ingenuity to create and improve puppets and the skill to command them about in battle.

With all the thoughts in his head keeping him occupied, the walk to his puppet lessons was a short one, and despite looking he couldn't notice the ANBU agents following him. _Not that I should be able to_ , he reasoned; if a genin could detect them then they shouldn't have ever gotten to that rank. When he approached the Hidden Sand Armory, the door guard looked at him, and then at a paper in his hands. _Wait, maybe it's been rescinded because of the suspiscion of murder?_ Kame grimaced, fully expecting to be turned away, but to his surprise the man just waved him inwards and opened the door.

Once inside, he followed the instructions on his acceptance letter to find his way to a smaller room deep within the armory. Behind the door hung row after row of humanoid puppets, as well as little parts of puppets and scattered cloth and wood littering the floor. In the back, he caught sight of a man sitting in a chair and looking straight at him. "...Lord Kankuro? Is that you?"

"Yes. And drop the 'Lord,'" he added, his voice raspy with age but still an imposing growl, "I'm not my little brother. Come over here… Kame, right? That's your name? I sure hope you're skilled enough to succeed me." _Well, that got very serious very quickly_. Kankuro turned on a light and was revealed to be an elderly man wearing intricate purple face-paint and a tattered black cloak, with a bored expression plastered all over his face. "Well? Are you going to reply, or…?"

"Oh! Sorry, Lord-" Kame choked on his words. "Uh... Master Kankuro?" There wasn't any visible annoyance at that one, so Kame kept going. "I hope- no, I _think_ I can succeed in that task."

Kankuro appeared unimpressed. "Really? You're a fresh genin, what makes you think that you should or can inherit the Sand's puppet techniques? You don't even have any history or lineage of puppet jutsu- will you just, what, make a puppet from scratch and reinvent the art?" He gestured towards the puppets lining the walls of the room. "What makes you think you can create something better than what the masters before you achieved?"

"Well, I am highly skilled at…" _No, that's the wrong way to go about this,_ Kame thought. _There are definitely more talented shinobi out there._ What made him different? He thought for a few moments before settling on his answer. "You didn't have any of those things." Kankuro's expression remained unchanged, but Kame only grew more convinced in his response. "You didn't make Crow, Black Ant, or Salamander, Sasori did, based on Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Ten Puppets, just like he based his Performance of a Hundred Puppets on Shamon's techniques, after learning the art of puppetry itself from Chiyo of the White Troupe. He improved on all those who came before him, and you improved even further upon what he'd done. Now, like him, like Chikamatsu, like Shamon, like Chiyo, it's your turn to pass on the secrets that you've mastered and live on in the techniques you taught.

"I _don't_ promise to build anything from scratch- why would I, when the beauty of the puppet technique is that all of the progress made by every master before me is immortalized and at my fingertips? I can't promise that I can make something better than the Sasori, but I do promise to make what he made, _better_. I swear that I will build on his and your accomplishments. I'll be the next link in the chain, and someday I'll find someone else to take what I've done and improve upon _it_ as well. That's the duty and the legacy of a puppet master." It was also what made it appeal so much to Kame- the idea of using the exact same techniques and tools as legendary ninja from the Hidden Sand's history gave him an undeniable rush.

Finally, Kankuro smiled. _He knew that,_ Kame realized, _but he wanted to see if I did as well. It was a test all along, wasn't it?_ The ex-jonin nodded at him: "You understand it, don't you? _Real_ understanding of that is something I don't see in many people who want to be my students. They think, 'wow, look, he used death spikes and poison!' or 'oh nice, he gets to sit back far away from the fight and make some piece of wood do all the work for him.'

"Nobody sees the true point of the Puppet Style- except you, apparently. Yeah, you'll do fine."

For the second time that day, Kame restrained himself from jumping for joy.

* * *

The sun was setting by the time the puppet lessons finished. Kame exited the building satisfied in the progress he'd made. A quick glance around found no ANBU agents within vision- at this point, it was more a personal quest to catch one of them than any true expectation to succeed. When he started walking, though, someone did enter his field of vision.

"Deihaka-sensei!" Kame called out to his squad leader.

The jonin turned to see him and smiled tiredly, a slight flush in his cheeks indicating that he was not entirely sober. "Kame! I've got some good news, they, uh... they narrowed down the list of suspects and you're off it!" _That's a relief._

Kame nodded, head still spinning from the eight hours or so of puppet practice he'd just gone through, absentmindedly responding just to make conversation. "So, Haku finally found a way to use her chakra…"

Deihaka nodded. "Yeah, we practiced with it a little bit this morning. Pretty sure she's got a lightning affinity. Sure helped on our last mission… speaking of which, feel like I mighta been little bit too harsh yesterday." Kame opened his mouth to protest that he was totally fine, but Deihaka went on anyway. "You did do more than your fair share in the fight, and at the end of the day you were at least partially responsible for taking out..." he trailed off, counting on his fingers. "Three Sand chunin... three cursemarked Valley chunin, and... right, you helped getting us into the base.

"You also probably feel like I'm being unfairly soft with Miriki, huh?" Kame nodded mutely, split between enjoying the praise and dreading what Deihaka would say next. "The thing is, Miriki's a ninja 'cause he finds it fun, and to piss off his family. You're aiming a lot higher than he is, get it? Do you think our Lord Kazekage gets jealous when he sees some genin receive praise?"

"No, but-" Kame had to speak up. It wasn't a fair comparison- _I'm in the same boat as Miriki, not in charge of him_.

Deihaka's grin faded a little bit, sternness overtaking his face and voice. "Stop making excuses." _That's the same thing the Kazekage said to me,_ thought Kame. "You wanna go high, and I'm gonna do my best to get you there. Miriki doesn't gain anything from criticism because he has... he doesn't really wanna improve, right? But you, you can gain from it because you actually want to grow stronger.

"Besides, at his level, Miriki doesn't have the genjutsu or taijutsu necessary to protect himself against real enemies, which you know _damn well_ is why I stationed him outside. Is that... is that what you wanted to hear?" _It actually is,_ thought Kame. _He shouldn't get cut slack for being weak when he doesn't try his hardest._ Suddenly, Deihaka had a hand on his shoulder and was looking him dead in the eyes, the slight haze in his own eyes and voice gone: "Do you know what kind of people _like_ hearing that others are weaker than them? More importantly, do _you_ want to be that kind of person?"

With that, his teacher walked away, although those words- and the accusations of him grabbing at excuses- haunted Kame for the rest of the night.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Valley):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Graduation Exam Data: Gunaji Kokuseki**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Haruto Kokuseki) Notes: _Excellent user of his clan's unique stone techniques and an earth change of nature_

Genjutsu: C  
\- Instructor (Seishi Torakku) Notes: _Able to cast and dispel genjutsu at a passable level_

Taijutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Sakura Nagakura) Notes: _Proficient in taijutsu, clan's techniques elevate both melee and ranged prowess_

Appearance: _Age fourteen._ _Average height (5'6"), slightly thin build, short-cut solid grey hair and grey eyes. Typically clad in regulation durable Valley Shinobi clothing, colored grey for the Kokuseki clan and bearing their insignia, beneath Valley Genin vest with extra satchels for rocks._

Attitude: _Diligent and respectful of teachers, a model shinobi with ambition and drive to succeed, unlike his twin sister (Sagino Kokuseki). Popular despite spending little apparent time on social events, gets along with most other students. Seems to take an odd amount of interest in kekkeigenkai of other students._

History: _Originates from Kokuseki clan, one of the two major clans of the Village Hidden in the Valleys. Raised as the next heir and exceeded expectations, just short of prodigy-level performances in his tests. Successes far beyond those of his twin sister (Sagino Kokuseki) elevated him enough to achieve genin status after the minimum two years in the Hidden Valley's Shinobi Academy. Sister was promoted alongside him for reasons unknown._


	7. Abandoned

Miriki was late. Again. Kame, Haku, and Deihaka had been waiting for fifteen minutes since the agreed-upon meeting time, standing on the practice field with absolutely nothing to do. Kame tried to occupy himself mentally but he'd forgotten his paper at home, leaving him with very little to do but stew in rage at his teammate. Finally, Deihaka (who had thankfully landed on the _sober_ end of the daily coin-flip) broke the silence: "I wrote up a full report on our mission."

Kame nodded, although internally he wished that his sensei had finished the task before he'd had to admit to not reporting a mission during yesterday's interrogation. "Did anything new surface?"

"Nothing new, but I feel like that Gunaji kid didn't fill you all the way in yesterday."

Now Kame was interested. "What didn't she tell me?"

"Well, it's less an issue of what she told you and more how she said it. That wasn't a lair of Orochimaru's; hell, I doubt the man ever even set foot in there. Even Sankuryu being there was a bit of bad luck more than anything. That pit was basically a... let's call it a recruitment center, a middle point where captured civilians and shinobi got prepped before getting shipped off to the actual bases. Those three Valley shinobi were only converted there because they knew we were coming and decided to try out a quicker-acting cursemark.

"But, like I thought, they died _way_ too easily to be fully cursemarked shinobi. The faster marks might damn well actually make their subjects _weaker_ by taking away their brains and giving them only small physical boosts." Kame felt a little bit less proud of outfoxing the flying-type enemy. "Sankuryu was just there to oversee the evacuation of the base, and I guess also to execute the Sand shinobi loose ends. Speaking of which, Kame, you got a good taste of his jutsu, right?"

Kame nodded. "Yes. But, what is it? Barely one hit and he laid me out flat."

"His ability's pretty well understood; he was a Hidden Stone shinobi back before Orochimaru got to him. He learned a powerful lost jutsu that gave him his title, 'The Untouchable'. It makes makes whatever his attacks touch cease to exist. That's why he went right through your vest, shirt, and skin like it was nothing- if his strike's on course to hit you, there isn't much you can do other than try to dodge." Deihaka glanced at Haku. "Or hit him before he hits you.

"Senshiko and I barely held him off, and one little slip-up nearly killed you, Kame. He's _really_ dangerous, although like most taijutsu specialists he's weak at range and against large numbers or genjutsu. If you're one-on-one, though, general orders for most jonin or lower rank shinobi are to run away. To be completely honest, Senshiko is the only reason we were able even hold against him- her Moonlight Blade technique heated up her scythe enough that the temperature alone could ward off Sankuryu's attacks…" Kame took a moment to silently note just how great the difference was between this non-intoxicated, not-having-a-hangover Deihaka and the one he'd known over the last few days. This new man in front of him was explaining things at length, without correcting himself every third word, and seemed genuinely interested in the prospect of teaching.

His focus was broken when Deihaka changed subject abruptly. "By the way, Kame, I'm surprised you held it together. Those were _Valley_ shinobi we were working with to save more Valley shinobi. I'm actually pretty impressed you made it through the whole mission without bringing up the history of your villages."

Kame frowned. "What? What history? The Sand and Valley villages don't have anything worth mentioning in terms of historical encounters, besides the Akatsuki Incident, which wasn't even really the Valley's fault."

Deihaka's eyes widened. "Wait… so you seriously don't know about it at all?"

Now Kame was starting to get a _touch_ annoyed. "No! What is it? What are you talking about!?"

Deihaka let out a long breath. "Your ancestors, they were from the Heat Devil Village, right?" Kame nodded. "Well, you know how that village fell, right?"

"Yeah, the Hidden Leaf fought a long war with them, and then… wait, how _did_ they fall?" Kame _had_ gone into the history of his ancestral village when he was younger, but his parents hadn't approved of the line of study, believing it only affirmed the belief of the Hidden Sand ninja who saw them as outsiders. He recalled something vague about the Hidden Leaf's war with them coming to a head, and then... nothing else.

Deihaka shook his head. "I don't think I should… eh, whatever. The Hidden Leaf might've fought your village, but neither of them really _won_. Both sides fought to a standstill and eventually the villages agreed to a ceasefire." _What?_ Kame was confused now. _If the Leaf didn't destroy it, then who-_ "Then, in the ashes of the war, as your village recuperated, the Village Hidden in the Valleys took their shot to wipe out a rival lesser village. There were no recorded- wait, no, there was one survivor, but he died a few decades afterward, I think? Not gonna lie, I might be wrong about this stuff, I haven't studied it in years."

 _He's talking about Genno the Trapper_. The mildly famous Heat Devil ninja was one of Kame's idols: a man from the Hakiara clan who, without kekkeigenkai or a tailed beast, managed to achieve notoriety across the shinobi world. There was a confusing report of more recent actions that he may have taken in the Hidden Leaf, but Konohagakure ninja had blotted out all details. Kame may have told himself and Deihaka and anyone else who would listen that he cared about no village other than the Hidden Sand, but it was at least in part a lie- When he thought about the Heat Devil village, he felt a sort of pride and connection that he chalked up to simple love for his ancestral home.

However, the news that the Hidden Valley village had destroyed it was surprisingly… lackluster. The more Kame thought about it, the more he realized that he simply didn't care enough about it to get angry at anyone. His great-grandparents' village had been destroyed; but they had already left midway through the war with the Leaf in search of a more peaceful home. The Hidden Valley ninja he'd met had been mostly nice as well as impressively skilled, and he wasn't about to ruin his relationship with them for the sake of their ancestors' sins against his ancestors.

Finally, he gathered himself and looked back at Deihaka, preparing a response, but froze instead as he looked over his sensei's shoulder towards the arena gate. The figure walking through it was clad in a white cloak that only one person he knew would be caught dead wearing. _God damn it_ , Kame thought, all traces of the previous conversation wiped from his mind as sheer annoyance flooded through him.

"Alright, I'm here, Deihaka-sensei." Miriki had the sheer nerve to walk up like _he_ was the one being inconvenienced. "You know, sensei, if you want to schedule any more of these sudden, last-minute lessons, can you warn me in advance? I'm standing up a lovely girl right now."

Deihaka rolled his eyes. "Missing one date isn't the end of the world, Miriki. And anyway, this wasn't a last-minute scheduling! I told you all about it two days ago while we were walking back from the mission. This morning was just a... reminder."

Miriki sighed. "Deihaka-sensei, you have to make sure that I'm paying attention when you tell me things." Kame couldn't believe what he was hearing. Had Miriki somehow managed to blame Deihaka for his own inattentiveness?

Deihaka just gave a sigh that Kame had decoded to mean 'I don't care enough about this conversation to fight you on this anymore,' and then turned to the group of three genin as a whole: "You're all here now, so I'm starting the lesson. Now, team eight: during our last mission, I noticed something. Anyone want to take a crack at what it was? I'll give you a hint, it was something only one of you used once."

Kame knew the answer, he'd thought about it himself. "Besides my substitution, none of us used any ninjutsu whatsoever. Well, Haku did use a lightning stance, but outside of that nobody used any complex ninjutsu of any sort."

"Yep." Deihaka looked a little bit disappointed as he thought about it. "When I heard you say that you learned _two_ changes of nature at your age, I was pretty about your prospects; but after seeing you in action I'm, ah... less so. If you haven't mastered any non-basic ninjutsu or genjutsu, then why would you talk about nature changes?"

"Well, sensei, I have mastered several ninjutsu!" Kame was indignant.

"Like what?"

Kame thought about it. "Let's see… the clone jutsu, the transformation jutsu, the illusion jutsu... uhm… the substitution jutsu... the…" _I really am pathetic_ , Kame thought. _Seriously!? That's four jutsu! Do I really only know those four academy-level techniques?_ He considered the other half of Deihaka's earlier question. "The reason I picked up changes in nature so early is for paperbomb creation- I discovered that when loading them with chakra, if I used wind or fire release chakra, I could change the effects of their detonation..."

Deihaka, as if sensing his distress, patted him on the shoulder. "Don't be hard on yourself about the jutsu thing… although you'll have to learn more of them, at the very least you understand the basics-" he froze, glancing at Haku awkwardly, before trying to resume what he'd been saying. "Anyway, the reason most ninja use ninjutsu is for attack power that you just can't get with taijutsu, but your paperbomb thing's filled that hole for you. I think you should focus on more tactical ninjutsu, to fill in your _other_ holes."

He turned to Miriki and Haku. "However, for you two, I'm going to do my damnedest to teach you some basic offensive ninjutsu. Miriki, I know you want to focus on your genjutsu, but even if you incapacitate opponents, you need a finisher to put them down while you can. And Haku, your taijutsu might be great, but when you're _extremely_ outnumbered, or when an enemy has a way to prevent you from closing the gap and getting to them, you need a way to fight back."

Then he smiled, gesturing to the three tall wooden posts sticking up from the sand. "This is a pretty standard exercise for teaching chakra control, which is the first step to learning jutsu of any type. You three are gonna climb up these posts, but you're not allowed to use your hands." As he spoke, he approached the posts and then walked straight up one of them. "The trick to this one is to push chakra through the soles of your feet. Make sure you maintain a steady flow of it."

He leaped backwards off of the post and back to the earth, then turned and gestured towards the wooden pillar. "Well? Let's get to it!"

Kame walked up to the post and considered it briefly. The correct thing to do here should be to use chakra to bind his feet to the wood of the pole. Briefly centering himself, he focused in on the energy running through his body and gently urged it towards his feet, feeling it pool there, and then strode forward. A small rush of accomplishment entered his mind when it worked, first one foot then the other planting and remaining locked onto the wood. He made it a good seven or eight feet up the wooden post before a small gust of wind distracted him just enough to dislodge his feet.

After landing awkwardly on his back, Kame gritted his teeth and tried again. This time, he closed off his mind to anything but the wood beneath his feet and himself, ignoring any wind or noise that would break his concentration. Step by step he made his way upward until he reached the end, then he swung himself around to sit atop the pole, finally allowing himself to glance downwards at the others of his team.

Miriki was also making progress, wobbly but still managing to make his way upwards. However, at about a third of the way up the fifteen-meter climb, something happened to make him lose grip and fall to the ground.

Haku, on the other hand, wasn't managing anything at all. Kame watched as she closed her eyes in focus, but instead of the sand around her feet swirling inwards as it should if she was managing to make her chakra bind, it merely shook in place. Deihaka glanced her way, but instead of trying anything with her he walked up to Miriki and had a quiet talk with him. Miriki nodded and then tried again to climb the post, closing his eyes and walking far more steadily this time.

Whatever Deihaka had told him to do must have been worked, because he made it all the way to the top in his next attempt, albeit more slowly than Kame had. Deihaka beckoned them to come back down, and they both hopped back down, using the poles to slow themselves just enough to avoid getting hurt upon landing. "Okay, great, now that you've all…" he trailed off, looking at Haku.

She looked back at him for a few long seconds before sighing and turning towards the gate out of the practice arena. "I… I think I'm just… I'll head home." She walked away without anyone saying anything further.

After she'd left, Kame found his voice. "Deihaka-sensei, why would you invite her to this if you knew that she wouldn't be able to do it!?"

When Deihaka turned to face him, he was surprised by the look of bitterness his sensei held. "As opposed to what? Calling you two here and not inviting her? Or telling her expressly not to come?"

Kame wouldn't back down. "It's better than having her come here just to remind her that she's crippled!"

"Is it? Why don't you just teach-" Deihaka bit off his angry retort. When he spoke again, his tone was more defeated than aggressive. "When I agreed to be a genin squad leader, I didn't know I'd be teaching her. I'm not a taijutsu expert, I don't know what…"

Miriki, clearly wanting a way out of this awkward situation, broke the silence. "Can we get on with jutsu training, please?"

Deihaka nodded. "Yes. Yes! Anyway, I have wind and earth affinity, but I've also learned the water release, so I know a few jutsu for each of you. Kame, I want you to learn the Gale Force Jutsu, which creates a massive outward blast of wind directly in front of you. That should help you with both disengaging from attacks and speeding up your own paper airplanes. Miriki, I want you to learn the Water Prison Jutsu. It's a very strong technique that can hold most ninja and should serve as that finisher I was talking about."

He walked up to Kame first. "The Gale Force Jutsu is a simple one to cast, but much harder to control. To do it, you need to complete a wind change of nature, and then focus all of your chakra on a point without actually allowing any of it out of your body. After a sufficient level of power is achieved, you release it, and all of the wind chakra will condense and subsequently expand on that point, pushing you and anything else around it away with extreme speed."

He raised a hand in front of him, and after a few seconds of concentration, a blast of wind knocked him and Kame backwards away from where his hand had been. _How about a little warning next time?_ Kame thought as he stood up. His rib was still a little bit sore, but it had been mostly healed by the medical ninja after he'd returned to Sunagakure. Deihaka was oblivious to what he'd done, grinning at him. "See? First, I want you to practice simply gathering the chakra and changing its nature without letting it escape- releasing will come naturally afterwards."

Kame nodded. Focusing in on his chakra network and on the space around his hand, he pushed his chakra towards the points on his palm. However, as the chakra quickly built up he failed to maintain control and a small burst of power came forward, laughably weak. _So the trick really is in building it up to a reasonable level._ He tried again, this time forcibly restraining the chakra and building it up more and more, until…

Damn. He pushed it back too much, and this time it snapped back into his body and resumed normal circulation. _I haven't even started on the wind change of nature yet, this is going to take a lot of practice._ He tried again, and again, and again, each time failing, but also getting closer and closer to the correct technique. On his twentieth attempt, he finally managed it; building up the chakra enough to get a real store of power and then let it all out before him, unleashing a visible burst of blue chakra energy.

 _Wait, I have a lesson with Kankuro later today,_ Kame thought. _I'd better finish learning this jutsu by then. In that case, time for the wind change of nature…_

* * *

"Now send the signal," Kankuro ordered.

Kame grunted and tried to do as he was told, sending a pulse along his chakra thread across the five-foot-gap between him and the puppet arm. Struggling to maintain control when the pulse of his energy reached the disjointed arm, he tried to recreate what Kankuro had described, _activating_ the metal he sensed within the wood. His efforts were met with a tiny 'snik' noise and a small point of metal poking itself from the forearm of his puppet's arm.

Kankuro nodded. "Good, that's progress." He reset the blade back into the arm and turned back to Kame. "Now, again!" Another pulse, and this time Kame used the same sort of chakra control he'd had to focus in on (during his earlier training) to force the blade forward. Despite the resistance, Kame simply pushed harder mentally- _I won't be beaten by this stupid little piece of iron!_ In one final shove, he gave a little too much chakra and keeled over onto his knees, breathing heavily, but satisfied with the sight of a full blade emerged from the arm.

However, Kankuro wasn't pleased. "You did it." His voice wasn't supportive any longer, now holding in it a tinge of annoyance. "Now what?" Kame wasn't sure what he was being asked… "You used up all of your chakra in that push- the point of puppet jutsu isn't to manhandle the puppet around with sheer force of will. You're supposed to work _with_ the puppet and use it like you would use an arm or leg."

Kame felt his face color a little bit. His momentary success now seemed to trivial compared to Kankuro's disappointment. "I'm sorry, master… I see now."

Kankuro waved him off. "Bah, whatever. You've used up too much chakra now, so no more lessons. Take the rest of the day off, but when you come back, I expect you to have more restraint." As Kame stepped out the door, his last glimpse of Kankuro was of the man turning back around to tinker with the severed puppet arm, looking more disappointed or bored than angry. _Maybe these lessons are as fun for him as they are for me?_ Kame thought, although that was a fairly egotistical thing to think.

As if he knew what Kame was thinking, Kankuro looked up and resumed his scowl, maintaining the annoyance in his expression until Kame was out of sight.

When Kame stepped out the door of the Hidden Sand Armory, he couldn't help but feel happy despite being booted out of his class slightly early (he'd been three and a half hours through a four hour lesson). _Things are starting to look up,_ he thought, and although the start had been a little bit rough, he was starting to enjoy life as a shinobi. Because- for some stupid reason- Haku was still on the suspects list, their squad wouldn't be allowed out of the village on missions until this whole spy situation blew over. Honestly, though, it wasn't half as bad as Kame thought it would be. With Deihaka's elemental jutsu and Kankuro's puppet jutsu lessons to fill his time, boredom was a thing of the past.

Kankuro was a much better teacher than his first impression had made him out to be. His grasp both of the Puppet Style and of the difficulties of learning it (having needed to teach himself after being turned down by Chiyo) made him an excellent instructor, and although he could be harsh, for the most part Kame was finding his puppetry lessons to be very informative. Deihaka was… less excellent, although that may be attributable to him having to micro-manage Miriki constantly. _Honestly, Deihaka-sensei seems like he'd rather not even be handling a genin team, so why is he in charge of one?_ A pang of hunger ended that train of thought before it even truly began.

Kame decided to swing by the market on the way home and buy some ingredients for dinner. Due to his parents being almost perpetually away from home, he'd actually amassed a reasonable level of skill as a chef. _Tonight I feel like… beef teriyaki_. That meant he'd have to go by the butcher's, so he turned in that direction, taking him through the restaurant district.

Somehow, he knew something was wrong from almost a block away. The feeling grew stronger with each step he took in the direction, and then he started to hear the whispers, coming from all around. People weren't gathered or anything dramatic like that, but they all seemed to shy away from something, talking in hushed tones, all radiating from a central point maybe 20 meters away and to the right. Kame, almost afraid to look, pushed aside the curtain of Sunagakure's only ramen shop and saw Haku sitting alone at the bar.

Suddenly, the whispering grew all too clear to him. _Traitor. Spy. Murderer._ Even though the restaurant should have been full on a Friday night like tonight, it wasn't- quite a few tables were left empty, and the bar was barren of any customers whatsoever. _The hit-list wasn't supposed to be public; did someone release Haku's name?_ Kame walked towards his teammate, not sure what he intended to do but unable to stop himself from putting one foot ahead of the other.

He froze, though, when Tetsute emerged from the kitchen and stood across the bar from Haku, leering at her. _Crap, that's right, his parents run this place,_ Kame remembered. "Hey, Haku. Could you maybe… find somewhere else to eat?" She said nothing and didn't move, but he didn't let up. "Haku." When she still didn't move, he tapped two fingers on her forehead, pushing her head back until she was looking at him. "Hello? Anyone in there?"

Haku remained silent, seemingly unwilling to resist or to submit.

"Look, it's one thing to steal Kame from our team and drag him down in his missions," Tetsute sighed, shaking his head, "But it's another thing entirely for you to go and murder a fellow Sand ninja in our own Kazekage's tower. What, did the poor guy figure out how you _cheated_ on the Academy Graduation Exam?" There was a little murmur of reaction from the people sitting in the restaurant close enough to hear what Tetsute was saying. "I'm not allowed to punish you," he drawled, "But I am gonna have to ask you to leave _my_ restaurant. You're scaring off all the normal people who want to eat, _Kodoku_."

The nickname seemed to finally draw something from her, as she stood up and turned towards the door. Her eyes met Kame's, and he saw the raw pain that was buried there as she walked towards him. He thought about his home, and his dinner plans, and about inviting her to eat at with him, or about defending her and talking back to his old friend… but in the eyes of Tetsute staring at him, he simply froze like a deer in the headlights and let Haku go right around him and out of sight, with townspeople parting to keep a visible bubble around her until she was out of sight.

Tetsute grabbed him by the arm. "Hey, dude, what's up! It's been a few days, how the new squad? Can't imagine it's much fun with Miriki and Kodoku on it…" His grin weakened a little when Kame didn't respond. "Let's catch up over some ramen, eh? Gotta grab seats quick, though, with her gone the bar's gonna fill up in minutes." Kame still remained silent and still. "Kame? Earth to Kame, what-"

Kame turned to look his friend in the eye, hoping the accusation in his heart made it to his face and voice. "How long have you been picking on Haku like this?"

Tetsute narrowed his eyes. "I'm not… are you defending her?" He seemed genuinely amazed by this reaction. "You, Kame Hakiara, _you're_ gonna lecture me!? I'm pushing her out of my family's shop because as long as she's in here, we're not making any money. You know how she is; people already avoid her like the plague. Not to mention how Genji overheard some Interior Defense chunin talking about how she was the one who killed Genku, and now everyone knows that she did it. She's a traitor and a loser, she's costing us money, and so I told her to leave the restaurant! You have no right to-"

This time, Kame grabbed the other boy's shirt to shut him up. "And you had no right to try to push her out of our team!"

"What? How did you- You know what, it doesn't even matter. You have no moral high ground to stand on, Kame." Tetsute swung a forearm up to dislodge Kame's hand from his shirtfront. "You sat there with me and Rakuyo at the academy talking down about all of the other students. You called everyone below us weaklings and treated them the same as Rakuyo and I did. What was that nickname you came up for for Miriki? Loverboy?"

Kame was too lost in his thoughts to make any retort. _Am I really like them? A bully?_ He considered all the times he'd brushed off students asking him for tips on ninjutsu, ignored their attempts at friendship, and dismissed them mentally simply because he was stronger than them. For some reason, Deihaka's parting words from a few days ago came into his mind: 'Do you really want to be that kind of person?' But faced with Tetsute and with all of the ugliness that Haku had just suffered, there was only one answer. "No." Kame steeled himself. "I never hated any of them. And I definitely never tried to hurt any of them. That's what makes me and you different."

Tetsute snorted, but turned back towards the kitchen of the restaurant. "Sure, sure, whatever lets you sleep peacefully. I guess spending too much time with the cripples made you start loving them, eh?" Kame didn't even merit that statement with a response, simply turning towards the butcher's shop and trying to make peace with himself mentally.

However, even after buying, preparing, and eating dinner, he still wasn't able to calm his troubled mind. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Tetsute had always been this way- but not only that, he also realized that he himself had been that way. On the day of the academy graduation exam, he'd dismissed the weaker participants just because his scores had been higher. Did skill at shuriken throwing really give his life any more meaning than theirs?

Even recently he'd been selfish. All week long, he'd been so relieved to be off the hook for treason that he'd ignored Haku's suffering, which had probably been infinitely worse than his as someone who'd already been an outcast. _Kodoku_. Tetsute's nickname for her literally meant 'lonely', and tonight had been Kame's first real taste of what that meant. The image of her sitting alone at the bar stuck in his mind, and even when he escaped to sleep his dreams were of running to sit next to Haku but never reaching her.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Valley):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Graduation Exam Data: Keikiro Torakku**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Haruto Kokuseki) Notes: _Lightning change of nature, excellent chakra control, clan tracking jutsu_

Genjutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Seishi Torakku) Notes: _Highly perceptive, able to spot and release genjutsu with ease, capable of most minor genjutsu as well_

Taijutsu: C  
\- Instructor (Sakura Nagakura) Notes: _Passable skills, but physical limitations put her at a disadvantage_

Appearance: _Age fourteen._ _Very short height (4'7"), thin build. Light blonde hair and brown eyes, typically wearing brightly colored clothing (preference for pink)._

Attitude: _Apparently enthusiastic about becoming a ninja, but also seemingly averse to violence. Amicable relations with all classmates, but on friendly terms with most. Obedient to teachers, follows orders well, but doesn't go above and beyond unless pressured to._

History: _Rumored to have joined academy only due to influence from clan, but behavior doesn't indicate unwillingness to serve as a ninja. Graduated near top of class in everything but taijutsu._


	8. The Hermit

Mere minutes after getting up, Kame heard a knock on the door and was met with the sight of an middle-aged ninja in an Interior Defense flak jacket standing just outside. When the man saw him, he sighed and delivered a message in a monotone that indicated his complete lack of interest in the task at hand: "You have been summoned to the Kazekage's office. Our Lord Gaara wishes to apologize for your treatment during the recently concluded investigation. You also have the deepest apologies of the Interior Defense Corps for our misconviction of you."

Before Kame could ask for any more details, the man had already body flickered away, leaving the him in a confused state of suspension- _So they found the real traitor, and now the Kazekage himself wants to apologize to me? Can I eat breakfast first? Is this thing right now, or…?_ Kame decided that perhaps it would be better to be safe than sorry, and left straight for the Kazekage's office. A long walk later and he was standing before the imposing structure at the very center of the Village Hidden in the Sand, preparing himself to go inside.

Even as he stepped into the building, a nagging suspicion in his head grew louder and louder. _Why would the Kazekage apologize to me? This doesn't seem like a normal occurrence, and besides, it's Naziru who should be apologizing._ He briefly shuddered at the absurdity of the image of that evil-looking woman actually apologizing to him. There was definitely something off, but Kame had little choice other than to walk forward until a shinobi stepped over and looked him in the eye. "Kame Hakiara?"

Kame could only nod, which seemed to satisfy the older ninja. The man began walking towards a door off to the left, tossing, "Follow me," over his shoulder. They walked along a winding circular path, past door after door and up a good five or six floors, all in complete silence. Finally they reached a larger set of double door and his guide stopped, gesturing towards the entrance. "The Kazekage's expecting you."

 _Could he have phrased that any more ominously?_ Kame hoped that his nervous swallow wasn't noticeable as he stepped into the office of the Kazekage for the first time in his life. Upon entering, the first thing he thought was, _This is actually… not that intimidating_. The office was sparsely decorated with a bare minimum of a few portraits of previous Kazekage hung on the walls, a large window at the back, and a desk and two chairs, upon one of which sat… _I take it back, this is very intimidating._ The Kazekage was staring at him with sullen blue eyes ringed in black- an even darker black than usual, in fact. Dark rings lined his eyes, making him appear extraordinarily tired, and his depressed expression only contributed to that impression.

Kame stood, locked in place, until Gaara gestured towards the chair and raised an eyebrow. Kame coughed a little and nodded, shuffling forwards to sit down in the seat and bowing his head in deference. _Why isn't he talking? Am I supposed to greet him?_ "Um… hello… I mean, greetings, Lord Kazekage!" _Damn, I sounded so awkward._

Gaara sighed a long, tired breath. "Lift up your head and look at me, Kame." Kame raised his eyes to meet his Kazekage's. "I've called you here to apologize for you being taken in during the recent investigation, which was uncalled for given what little evidence we had at the time."

Kame failed to suppress the confusion in his mind from making it to his face, and desperately tried to cover it up with a rushed statement. "B-but you're the Kazekage, why… why would you have to apologize to me, and… I mean, it… it was Naziru who pulled me in, and I don't think…"

Gaara nodded, mercifully cutting his stuttering off before it could go any further. "You're right. I wouldn't call you all the way out here to deliver a formal apology; we have mail for that purpose. But now that I've gotten that pretense out of the way, I have another subject to discuss with you, something that I need you to do."

Kame swallowed. _I should feel honored that the Kazekage would give me a task, but why do I feel like this is going to be…_ "What is it?" he asked.

"I need you to be a better teammate to Haku Yorutsume." Lord Gaara's face had turned almost a little bit… sad? Regretful?

However, Kame was already hung up on the issue of Haku, and when someone else pushed him on it he instinctively snapped. "I have! I haven't done anything to her, it was the other kids who picked on her! I've included… I've…" he trailed off. _Last night I left her alone, didn't I? I have no ground to stand on here._

The Kazekage was unimpressed. "Whatever it is that you're doing, you're failing."

"Why don't _you_ do something, then?" Kame was reckless in his defensiveness, forgetting momentarily that he was speaking the the Kazekage.

"Because… Deihaka explained her situation to you, yes? As much as Naruto has helped to make the ninja world a more peaceful place, there remains a power balance between the villages. For the Hidden Sand to have a fragment of the Tentails, the strongest of the tailed beasts by a ridiculous margin, would upset that balance. I can't afford to pay her any undue attention or other villages would take notice. A few years ago, they _did_ , and-" he clammed up, but looked at Kame expectantly.

 _I guess it doesn't even matter if she's not a strong ninja_ , thought Kame. _As long as she holds the Tentails, she's a target._ "You still put her alone, far from everyone. What did you think would happen if you separated her from everyone else and left them with only one memory of her, a terrible one?"

The Kazekage was acting strangely. He leaned forward, putting his head in his hands, and sighed in defeat rather than exasperation. "I… I didn't have any choice. She attacked the other children. Every parent who had a child there was begging me to move her to another village, the elders and both councils ruled in favor of putting her down, and..." he sounded like he was arguing to himself more than anyone else, in the tired tones of someone who'd made the same justifications a thousand times before. "I can't just... wave my hands and make her accepted and loved, don't you understand?

"I'm doing as much as I can, but neither can I." Kame shook his head.

Lord Gaara didn't even register his words, continuing to mumble. "I thought… I thought that the Kage of the past were wrong. I was so sure that I wouldn't repeat their mistakes, but… I'm no different, am I? I'm even worse."

 _Well, this is the most awkward I've ever felt,_ thought Kame. _What am I supposed to do here? Do I comfort the Kazekage...? Maybe I should just leave._ Suddenly Gaara seemed to snap out of whatever mental slump he'd been in and looked up at him. "Kame, I can't do any more for her. You have to help her, whatever it takes."

Kame was annoyed at this point. "Lord Kazekage, with all due respect, I've already told you that I'm doing everything I can!"

"Well it's not enough!" The Kazekage's eyes blazed, but Kame wouldn't back down either.

"Who are you to tell me what's enough!? You don't even know her, and you're preaching at me about what she needs! I'm trying to-"

The Kazekage cut him off with a hollow voice. "Last night, Haku tried to take her own life."

_What?_

The news went off like a bomb in Kame's mind, and he shut up instantly.

 _She… she tried…_ the simple facts refused to register. In shock, his mind drifted to the scene at the restaurant, people keeping away from her and speaking about her behind her back. He remembered Tetsute publicly forcing her to leave the restaurant, calling her _Kodoku_ and telling her that everyone hated her. And then, he remembered himself, standing there and just watching her like every other person in the restaurant- no, like every other person in her life.

 _What the hell is wrong with me?_ Kame collapsed forward, head in his hands, just as the Kazekage had done minutes before. He imagined what Haku had felt, coming back from a mission that must have been one of the first times she'd felt accepted in her life, maybe even hoping that things had changed… Only to return to a village hating her even more than they already had. To be bullied by the same guy, silently hated by the same townspeople, pushed out of the training she'd started to enjoy, and even ignored by one of the people she'd believed in, who hadn't even thanked her for saving his life. _I'm pathetic._

Lord Gaara gathered himself, facing Kame again. "Late last night, we found and dealt with the man who'd actually killed Genku, and I decided to go to Haku's house and apologize to her. By sheer chance I found her mid-fall off of the cliff after jumping off. If she'd died there's a good chance that the tentails would have emerged and destroyed the Hidden Sand. I caught her, did my best to calm her, and stayed with her until she eventually fell asleep and I was confident that she wouldn't try it again. However, this is unsustainable- if she was depressed enough to end her own life, then she's in pain and has been for a long time."

Kame raised himself slowly until he was sitting straight up and looking Gaara in the eye. "I… I'm going to help… I promise on my life as a Shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Sand that I will help, however I can. I'll protect her from ever going to that place again."

The Kazekage let out a long breath. "I truly hope that you can succeed where I couldn't, Kame. Haku… she reminds me so much of myself, and of Naruto, but instead of blaming the people around her like I did or the flawed shinobi world like Naruto did, she blames herself. It's a heavy burden that you're trying to lift from her shoulders."

Kame nodded, now set in his course. "I'll do it. I swear to save Haku."

* * *

When the squad next gathered, later that day, Kame had done some research and had something to suggest. This time, Miriki's tardiness didn't annoy him (much) because there was an idea he wanted to share with Deihaka and Haku. "Deihaka-sensei, Haku," he said, getting their attention, "I have a suggestion."

Deihaka looked at him curiously. "Let's hear it."

"I think that, if you're going to continue teaching us jutsu, Haku is just wasting her time." Kame felt a little bit of regret for putting it that way when he saw Haku flinch and turn away. "I think that we need a trainer who can instruct her in high-level taijutsu. No offense, sensei, but I don't think you're the right person to do that."

Deihaka shrugged but didn't object to the statement. Kame decided to keep going, seeing Haku start to look a little more happy. "I spoke to the Kazekage and he told me about someone similar to you, Haku- someone who couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu at all but ended up as a successful ninja anyway. His name is Shira and he's currently living far up to the north, on the outskirts of the Land of Wind."

Haku glanced up at him and her eyes betrayed a glimmer of hope. "I… if he really can teach me, then…"

Deihaka was more skeptical. "Okay, that sounds great, except for the fact that this man lives at the northern border, and Haku is on our team. How is that going to work?"

"Well, that's the thing… Lord Kazekage told me that he's likely to respond a lot more favorably if Haku is actually in front of him, so… can we go to him?" Deihaka started to say something, his face twisting in frustration, but Kame quickly continued. "We aren't up for any missions, but since Haku's been cleared the squad should be okay to leave the village, right? We could make it there in only a day or two and then try to convince him to come back with us."

Deihaka shook his head. "I'm not taking the whole squad two days north to go harass an old retired ninja at his own home." Haku's shoulders sagged a little bit, but then- "However, we technically _aren't_ up for any missions, so I could… hold off on resuming them for a few days. I would remain and teach Miriki, of course, but you two could go."

Kame cheered a little bit internally before turning to Haku. "Sounds great. Haku, can you pack up? We can leave this afternoon, if you want." She nodded. "Okay, let's meet up at the village gate at… two?" Another nod, then Haku darted off towards her house, leaving Kame to head towards his, stopping by Kankuro's workshop to let him know the situation.

"You're neglecting your training!? We're only five lessons in, you ingrateful-"

"Master, I'm truly sorry, but… it's Haku. She needs a teacher, so I'm heading off to find one with her."

"Haku, isn't she the..." Kankuro's eyes widened in realization, but then he shook his head and resumed a frustrated expression. "What about _your_ teacher, you disobedient, undutiful, lazy... argh. This is what I get for choosing you as the inheritor of my art?"

Kame winced. "I'm sorry, Master. But the Kazekage- I mean, Gaara, told me to help her find a better mental state, and I think this is the only way I can do that. She's in a lot of pain, and..." he trailed off, but it was enough to make Kankuro's resistance melt away.

"It's-" Kankuro frowned. "Gaara asked you to do this?"

"Yes. Trust me, this is... it's _important_."

Kankuro didn't seem to listen, gazing off into the middle distance like he was seeing something from the past for several long moments before finally snapping his eyes back to Kame. "Go, then. I… I wish I'd been there for Gaara the way you're here for the Yorutsume girl." Kankuro's voice was no longer angry, but forlorn. Kame remembered the stories he'd heard of the Kazekage's childhood, and of the neglect and hatred he'd suffered so much like Haku had.

He then went straight for his house, picking up enough food for six nights (three if he shared with Haku) as well as a generous supply of ninja tools and paperbombs. Packing everything into his satchel, he then went straight for the gate. Haku arrived about the same time as he did, and wordlessly they left for their destination.

* * *

They finally arrived in the late afternoon the next day, a bit over twenty-four hours after they had left the Village Hidden in the Sand. Their destination was somewhat unimpressive; a small gathering of houses with a few small farms surrounding it. They'd long since left the massive desert that the Land of Wind was famous for, the country now looking more like savannah.

Kame had spoken with Haku during the trip there, more than he ever had before- although that wasn't saying much. She was extremely reluctant to share her more personal opinions or beliefs with him, although she _was_ quick to comment on other things. Funnily enough, she was actually almost as much of a geek about historical ninja as he was. They'd spent a good hour arguing over the relative strengths of the members of the Akatsuki (she _still_ maintained that Kisame would have won against Konan, despite his taijutsu specialty being most likely worthless against her Dance of the Shikigami).

The books he'd found at her home made a little more sense now; they were histories of the Shinobi World Wars. Haku was strangely obsessed with finding more information about strong ninja, especially strong users of the various kekkegenkai scattered about the villages. However, when Kame had asked her about her own clan, she'd had very little to say. When he asked about its collapse, she'd closed up to him completely again, so he'd quickly abandoned the project.

When they found their way into the village center, a Sand chunin approached them carefully. "What is your business here?" _Ah, right_ , Kame thought, _this village is close to the border, so they're more likely to be suspicious of newcomers' intentions_. He remembered his parents' stories about enemy spies attempting to cross in from other lands.

He decided to take the initiative in their conversation. "I'm here to find a retired shinobi who goes by the name 'Shira'. Do you know anything about where I could locate him?"

The chunin still didn't back down. "And why are you hunting Shira?"

Kame was confused- his Sand headband was clearly visible on his forehead, as was Haku's around her neck. "We're Sand shinobi looking for another Sand shinobi, I don't see what the problem is here…?"

The chunin loosened up only a little bit. "Shira is… he's not in a great state to accept visitors. His wife died a few weeks ago, and he's in mourning. Nobody's seen him since then, he's just holed himself up in that house." _Crap,_ Kame thought, _he'll never accept- wait, what am I thinking? A woman died and all I can think about is her husband being less likely to help me!?_

While he was stuck mentally reprimanding himself, Haku stepped forward. "I… I'm very sorry about his loss. However, should he really be left by himself?"

"Huh?" The chunin narrowed his eyes.

"Well, someone close to him died, and you're leaving him to deal with it alone? Does he have any friends in this village?"

"Of course!" The man seemed to take her criticism as a personal attack. "He's lived and worked here for decades, almost everyone here would count themselves among his friends!"

Haku looked at him with confusion. "But when he most needs friendship, you're leaving him to deal with the pain alone? Besides, the question isn't whether you count yourself among his friends, the question is are you being a friend to him?" Kame didn't know what to think. For someone who'd been so alone, Haku certainly had a lot to preach about friendship- although, she wasn't wrong. Maybe her loss and loneliness had helped her to understand Shira's situation better than anyone else.

The chunin's eyes widened in slight realization, but he still blocked their path. "I'm afraid that unless you tell me specifically what you're doing in this village, I need to ask you to leave."

Kame butted back in. "We're looking for taijutsu training. Haku," he gestured towards her, "needs a high-level instructor in hand-to-hand taijutsu and we weren't able to find any in the Hidden Sand. The Kazekage told us of Shira, and so we came here."

At the mention of the Kazekage's name, the chunin finally broke. "Fine, go on ahead, he lives in the house over on that hill" he said, pointing towards the house in question and stepping out of their way. As they walked by him, though, Kame heard him mutter, "If you're trying anything sneaky, I guess it's your funeral." _Was he talking about Shira?_ Kame wondered. _If he's a taijutsu specialist around Lord Gaara's age, then how dangerous could he be? Taijutsu users rely heavily on their body, and time wreaks havoc on their abilities._

Nevertheless, he pushed forward with Haku along the main street of the town, dodging a pair of giggling children. One of them tagged the other and then they ran back the way they'd come, with a reversal of who was chasing who. They were so caught up in it that the lead girl ran straight into Haku, bouncing off and falling backwards. Haku flinched, far more than she should have, and looked strangely _afraid_ of the child, but stopped a little bit when she saw the girl get up and smile at her.

"I don' think I've seen you 'afore!" The little girl had to be five or six.

Haku smiled hesitantly. "That's because I'm just here visiting. What's your name?"

The girl pointed at her friend. "I'm Yuki, an' this is Kina!" She tilted her head, looking at Haku curiously. "What's your name? An' who are you visiting?"

Haku smiled. "My name's Haku. I'm here to see Shira, do you know him?"

The girl's smile somehow widened even further. "Shira's the best! He's always nice an' smart an' cool an' gives us candy!" She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Mom says I'm not allowed to eat too much candy, but Shira still gives it to me… 'least, he used to, 'fore auntie Yome died…" The girl bowed her head a little bit, her brilliant smile disappearing.

Haku slung her pack around, digging around inside it for a few seconds before finally pulling out a closed hand. She reached forward and opened it in front of the little girl, whose eyes widened at the sight of a few wrapped candies sitting on her open palm. After a few seconds of awe, the girl looked up at Haku. "Can I have 'em? Really?"

"Yeah, go ahead." The moment Haku's words left her mouth, the girl had snatched the candies and unwrapped one in milliseconds. "Thanks, new lady! Tell uncle Shira I say hi!" The girl darted off, offering another of the candies to her friend as they disappeared behind another building.

When they continued on their way, Kame couldn't help but glance over at Haku. _Why is she so different now?_ He wondered what she would have been like if the Sand hadn't neglected her. _Is this the real Haku? Smiling, great with kids, always wanting to lend a hand to people who are sad?_

They finally reached their destination, a small cottage up on a hill near the center of the tiny town. There was no fence or gate, so Kame just shrugged and walked straight up to the door, knocking a few times. The door was opened almost the second his knuckles left the wood, and he found himself staring at an old man with hair completely white, although his weirdly youthful skin wasn't wrinkled at all.

The man spoke in a voice that was also deceptively young-sounding, more like a middle-aged man than an elder. "Hello, visitors, my name is Shira."

Kame started to reply. "Greetings. My name is Kame, and this is Ha-"

He was cut off almost immediately. "Come in, come in. Why don't you tell me your names?"

 _What is wrong with this guy?_ Kame tried again. "My name is Kame, and my friend's name is Ha-"

"Speak up! I don't hear very well anymore, you'll have to be louder than that."

Kame looked around, wondering if this was some sort of elaborate prank, before starting again, enunciating and raising his voice a bit. "Hello. My name is Kame and-"

"Come on, kid, I said I don't hear so well." Shira was like a blank slate, staring at him.

 _Crap, if I make him any more self-conscious about his hearing I might blow my chance at getting Haku a teacher!_ Kame steeled himself, before screaming (with a fair bit more voice cracking than he'd like to admit): "HELLO! MY NAME IS KAME HAKIARA AND THIS IS… Is… is…" He trailed off at the sight of Shira laughing hysterically, almost falling out of his seat. Haku was laughing right along with the older man- Haku was laughing! Kame had never heard her laugh before, and she was surprisingly loud and energetic about it, in sharp contrast to her normally shy and calm demeanor.

Shira calmed down enough to get out a few words in between chuckles. "You… you should have seen the…" he put on a squeaky fake voice: "My nAmE Is kAMe hAkiARa!" Both he and Haku dissolved into laughter again, and this time Kame couldn't help but join in. As their laughter died down, finally Shira turned to Kame and spoke. "I can hear you fine, that was just a little bit of humor- you younger generation are so gullible around people you respect."

Kame nodded. "I… Anyway, as I was saying, my name is Kame Hakiara and this is my teammate, Haku Yorutsume. Before I get to why we've come, I'd like to offer my condolences for your wife."

Shira nodded, the mirth evaporating from his face. "I appreciate your sentiment. She was…" He trailed off. _How do I talk to him now?_ Kame was unsure how to proceed. _Asking him for something now is probably a bad idea, but I can't just leave… What do I do?_

Kame tested the waters a little bit. "Are you going to leave this village? Now that…"

Shira shook his head sadly. "No, I have to stay with Yome." He nodded towards a window, outside of which there a headstone was visible.

 _He's still attached to her_ , Kame thought, but decided now was as good a time as any to make his case. "Shira-san, I have a request for you." When Shira looked up at him, he continued. "I want to ask you to come to the Village Hidden in the Sand, and help train Haku."

Shira frowned. "I'm honored that you came all this way to ask for my help in training her, but… I have to stay…" He glanced again at the grave.

Haku spoke up. "Shira-san, Yuki and Kina really miss you."

"I…" At the mention of the two little girls, Shira frowned.

Kame sensed his chance, and filled in where Shira had left off. "You are mourning your wife, and I understand that. But let me tell you something about Haku, before you make your decision." Gaara had told Kame the full story of Shira and his squad before they'd left. "When Yome first came to you, what was it that drew her to you?

"You were a ninja without genjutsu or ninjutsu, and somehow through force of will you forged a path for yourself. She admired you for that, and wanted to help you, didn't she?" Shira didn't deny it. "Haku is like you. She cannot use genjutsu or ninjutsu, so taijutsu is her only way forward. I want to help her, but I'm not skilled enough at taijutsu to help her move any further forward- and neither is anyone else in the Hidden Sand." That last bit wasn't quite a _lie_ ; Kame was fairly sure that no one more skilled than Deihaka technically had the free time to spend on training Haku. "You're the only one our Lord Kazekage could think of who would be up to the challenge of this task."

Shira opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again, indecision written plain all over his face. Kame seized his chance to make a final point: "What do you think Yome would want you to do? Watch the potential of a shinobi much like you go unrealized because of her, or help the next generation like she helped you?" When Kame finished, he noticed Haku staring at him with something unreadable in her eyes. Instead of meeting her gaze, he felt himself blush a little bit and turned to hide his face.

The elder ninja at the table sighed and looked once more out the window, before turning back to the two of them. "I accept my Kazekage's wishes, then. Haku, I'll teach you everything I know before I pass from this world. Yome helped me achieve my dream, and I'll be damned if I don't help you achieve yours." Then he stood suddenly, making his way over to the refrigerator. "You two must be hungry from traveling here. We can leave for the Hidden Sand tomorrow, but for tonight you two should stay here. I'll fix us some dinner."

Kame grinned. "What are you making? I can help." He walked over to stand beside Shira in the kitchen, but stopped and rolled his eyes at the sight of a water boiler and a few packets of instant noodles. _I can't really help with that, now can I?_ He turned around to sit back down at the table with Haku, remaining silent for the couple of minutes until Shira brought over three bowls of packaged noodles.

They were mostly done when Shira finally broke the quiet with a question. "How is Gaara these days, eh? I haven't seen him in a long time!"

Haku shifted a little in her seat. "He's… he seems to be all right. I saw him the other…" She choked off and rapidly paled, looking away from both other people in the room. _That's right, the last time she saw Gaara was when she-_

Shira started to press the topic, but Kame cut him off, coming to Haku's rescue. "Lord Gaara is quite well. Things have been mostly quiet in the Hidden Sand recently, but the times I've seen him he's been as wise and kind as ever."

The chunin nodded. "That's good to hear. I always knew he'd be a good Kazekage… I don't suppose you all know anything about Rock Lee, do you? This village is pretty isolated, so I rely on travelers to get the news. Did he end up as splendid of a ninja as he'd hoped?" Kame remembered the Kazekage telling him that the two taijutsu-only users of that generation had formed a bond with each other at their chunin exams.

"Yes, he-" Haku and Kame both answered at the same time, and then Haku receded and let Kame continue. "He was fairly well known, less so now. Towards the end of the Fourth Shinobi War, he- well, his master, Might Guy, fought Madara Uchiha in single combat with only taijutsu and nearly beat him."

Apparently news of the Shinobi War at least _had_ reached this village, or at least stories of Madara Uchiha's strength, because Shira leaned back, satisfied. "He must have… wait, did he open the eighth gate?" The satisfaction was gone, replaced with concern.

Kame nodded. "Yeah, but he was able to live somehow… I don't know, there are conflicting reports on what happened." _The Eight Inner Gates: the strongest taijutsu technique there is, but with a brutal cost,_ he recalled. "As far as I know, since then Rock Lee has operated as a successful Leaf Ninja for a long time."

Shira smiled. "Good, good." He must have been good friends with the Leaf shinobi. A few moments of silence passed, and then he abruptly stood up and pointed towards a doorway beside the kitchen. "You two take the stairs up to the bedroom. I'll sleep down here."

Kame wanted to argue that they could sleep on the floor; he didn't want to impose, but Haku was already opening the door and climbing the steps. Shrugging, he followed her and made his way up the short flight of stairs up to the bedroom. Inside he saw a single large bed and two cabinets were the only furnishings. _Okay,_ he thought, _there's only one bed, so how are we-_

Haku was already lying in it, her pack, coat, and boots in a pile on the floor. _Nevermind, then._ Kame spread out his bedroll on the floor and laid down, quickly disappearing into sleep devoid of the nightmares that had shaken him so much the day before.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Retired Jonin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Ex-Jonin Census Data: Shira**

Ninjutsu: F  
\- Agent (Yuto Supai) Notes: _Even at the prime of his career, failed to demonstrate any ability to cast ninjutsu_

Genjutsu: F  
\- Agent (Yuto Supai) Notes: _The same as ninjutsu, no genjutsu has been demonstrated_

Taijutsu: S  
\- Agent (Yuto Supai) Notes: _Extreme levels of physical prowess and raw technique made him one of the deadliest taijutsu users in recorded history during his active years. His speed, durability, and power are all exceptional and beyond jonin-level._

Appearance: _Age sixty-seven._ _Tall height (6'4") but low weight (161 lbs), athletic build for his age, hair has faded from grey to white but eyes remain light brown. Having retired, he no longer wears the Sand jonin vest, now typically found in casual vacationer's clothing._

Attitude: _Proven to be extremely loyal during career, but appears to have settled down in his old age. No discernible activity outside of helping when danger threatens his border village._

History: _Started out extremely close with the Fifth Kazekage in both of their youths, passed the chunin exams and moved on to a brief career as a chunin before his promotion to jonin. As a jonin, performed exceptionally well in missions all over the Land of Wind and beyond. In his prime, greatest accomplishment was dueling a rogue Threetails jinchuriki to a standstill using only taijutsu despite the jinchuriki entering a full tailed beast state. Eventually retired, settling down with a teammate (Yome Shinseki) and has not participated in any events of note since._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, just in case it isn't clear- a lot of Kame's spicier takes like Konan beating Kisame and Gaara being on par with EoS Naruto and Sasuke are a product of him being an unreliable narrator and a raging fanboy.


	9. The Homebound

**(A/N) I'd love to hear advice on my writing, no matter how negative it may be. I'm always looking to improve, so (if you feel like it) a review would be much appreciated! I'm also ready and willing to respond to any questions you may have.**

* * *

Kame blinked his way back into the world of the waking, eyes drifting around but finally settling on the clock, which read: 10:13. He jolted awake, sitting up too fast and tripping over his bedroll. _10:13!? I haven't slept in that late… well, since I can remember._ In the Hidden Sand, morning was heralded by noises from all directions, and since he usually had lessons scheduled an alarm would wake him if the ambient noise didn't. However, in this small border village, the morning was eerily quiet and peaceful.

When he sat up, he noticed that Haku wasn't in the bed, and her belongings were also gone. He quickly grabbed all of his own possessions and stumbled down the stairs, still blinking the grogginess away. When he entered the main room, though, it was also empty of people. Hesitantly, Kame called out as loudly as he dared, "Hey! Haku? Shira? Where are you two?"

No response. Just before he tried it again, his eyes flickered down towards the table, on top of which rested a note. Kame stepped over to it and scanned it briefly, his brow furrowing at first in confusion and then in horror at the contents: ' _Kame,'_ it read, ' _Haku and I have decided to go on ahead since you slept in so late. You can come along whenever you wake up, catch up if you really want to go with us. -Shira.'_

Kame looked around him and saw that, while the house's furniture remained untouched, little details revealed that Shira had in fact moved out; a few pictures had been removed, and all of the food was gone. _Did those… did they seriously leave without me!?_ Now a strange combination of rage and panic set in and he rushed out the door, entering a full sprint within seconds towards the Hidden Sand. _When I catch up to them, I'm going to let them have it._

He was so frustrated that he almost missed Haku and Shira on his right- luckily, he did notice them in time. Unluckily, his response to noticing them was to faceplant into the dirt road at full sprinting speed. Kame clawed his way back onto his feet and whipped around to see the two of them sparring in a small clearing besides the road, only twenty meters down from Shira's house. If they had noticed him coming, neither of them registered it.

Before he let them have it, he took a brief moment to appreciate the martial skill displayed before him. The two of them moved so quickly they were like blurs, and yet every strike was clearly targeted and executed to perfection. Back and forth the fight went, both participants getting momentary edges, but after only a short time Kame could clearly see that Haku had the disadvantage. Her attacks were more defensive than anything, while Shira's movements were similar to how a cat acted when it was playing with its food.

Suddenly, Shira ended it with an intense flurry of blows that Haku was barely able to deflect, each one forcing her more and more out of her defensive position, and then he unleashed a final strike that stopped just short of her face. His fist, frozen an inch before its target, still carried enough wind just from its force to stagger Haku a little bit and blow her hair backwards. Kame remembered himself from just a day ago doubting Shira and laughed a little bit internally.

Haku was still dazed from the exchange, but Shira seemed to finally notice him. "Hey, Kame," he called out, waving a hand. "Glad to see you…" he snickered, "Finally caught up with us!" Another barely suppressed chuckle. Kame was confused about what was so funny, until he realized that it was him. Completely out of breath from the sprint there, covered with dirt from his ungraceful nosedive, and so annoyed he was probably steaming from the ears… _I must make a pretty ridiculous sight._

Haku recovered enough to smile and wave at him. "Kame! You were sleeping so peacefully; I didn't want to wake you." Kame may have been angry, but the rage sputtered out inside him at the sight of her so happy. He didn't have the heart to yell at her for accidentally helping Shira to prank him, especially not when she seemed to get along with the taijutsu master so well.

"Yeah… Well, I'm here now." Kame jerked his head towards the road. "What do you say? Deihaka-sensei's waiting for us, you know."

Haku nodded, although Kame could tell she wanted to keep sparring. "You're right, we should probably get going home now, huh?" She grabbed her pack and slung it over her shoulder, falling into step beside Kame.

Shira stepped over next to her and spoke. "Haku, I can tell that you have a lot of talent- more than Rock Lee or I had, to be completely honest. You can probably go further than either of us if you train hard enough." Haku was clearly trying (and failing) to conceal her pride at the high praise. "However, when it comes to the basics, you clearly had a teacher who was a weapon-taijutsu specialist. My best guess is that he uses a short sword?" Kame nodded. Saitama, the taijutsu instructor at the academy, _was_ best known for his short sword technique- although, how Shira had figured that out just from sparring against Haku, he didn't know.

Shira continued. "The problem with using weapon-type tactics as a martial fighter is that you end up wasting a lot of your mobility. When he gets knocked out of guard stance, he has to move his sword back into the correct position, which is how he taught you to use your hands. However, you're a lot more flexible than a sword- if you get knocked out of guard stance, you can come back in an instant, or better yet turn it into a counterattack." He kept going, explaining to an extreme level of detail all of the ways Haku had to improve as their little group followed the road back towards the Hidden Sand.

* * *

When they made it back to the village at noon the next day, Shira peeled off to go greet the Kazekage in person and find lodgings, leaving Kame and Haku alone at the gate. Kame remembered that he had a puppetry lesson scheduled- Kankuro would probably expect him to be back by now. He turned to go to the Hidden Sand Armory, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

Kame spun around to see Haku looking flusteredly down at his feet, moving an arm up behind her head in a strangely familiar display of awkwardness. She finally spoke up, looking at him despite obvious the obviously skittish worry in her eyes. "Kame, I… thanks… I mean, I want to thank you for…"

He nodded. "I'm happy to do it for a friend." When he called her a friend, she seemed to briefly lose her nerve and look away like she had before.

She gathered herself again and looked back into his eyes. "No, I want to… I have to say this. Kame, I want to thank you for… for doing all of this, and for believing in me. Nobody but Gaara has ever really treated me like this, and I _will_ make it up to you someday, somehow." Immediately after finishing, she tore her eyes away and darted off. Kame felt himself smile against his better judgement at the image- she looked so much like the girl from a few days ago in the border village who'd scurried off in a similar way after receiving candy.

With more happiness in his stride, he took his own leave and started off towards Kankuro and his lessons. After the long journey through the Land of Wind and back, the quick trip through the Village Hidden in the Sand was easy; he found himself standing before the door to the armory in practically no time at all. The door guard glanced him over before opening it, allowing him in. A few short passageways later, and he found himself standing in the doorway to the puppet room at the exact time his lesson was slated to begin.

When he turned on the light, Kankuro was sitting in the chair, but at the sudden brightness flailed briefly before falling out of it. In milliseconds, the man was on his feet, glowering at him. "Where the hell did you come from!? How about a little warning before you do that next time, brat?"

Kame looked down, hoping that Kankuro took it as a sign of apology rather than an attempt to hide his smile. "I'm sorry, master. I'll try to warn you before I turn on the lights in the future."

Kankuro, as if realizing the ridiculousness of his position, cleared his throat and sat back down. "Well then, Kame, let's get down to it. Were you able to find Shira?" _Gaara must have told him the specifics of the trip,_ Kame realized.

"Yes, and he agreed to help Haku in her training."

"Good." Kankuro nodded slowly. "Now, where did we last leave off? Oh yes, you exhausted all of your chakra and wasted both of our time." Kame coughed awkwardly and failed to meet his master's eyes. "Since we agreed you're not going to do that again, if you feel like you can't manage something I ask you to do, try it another way. When you were bringing out that spike yesterday, you weren't activating the mechanism, you were literally forcing it through the mechanism and the wood, completely breaking the whole thing.

 _That did seem way too hard…_ Kame nodded. _I guess that I need an understanding of the intricacies of the puppets as well, huh?_ He tentatively responded: "Could… could I see the plans or schematics for the puppets I'm to use? I want to know the mechanisms so that I can activate the right ones."

Kankuro shook his head. "Nah, It'll be better if I just show you. I know all of these puppets inside and out." He raised the same arm Kame had been focusing on during the last class. "Now, inside of this arm is a spring that sits behind the blade, right about here." He pointed at a point about a third of the way up ts forearm. "Then there's the blade itself, which has a notch near its base. Set into the notch is a little metal lever, preventing the blade from releasing." He tossed the arm up into the air and it hung there, about four feet off of the ground. "Now, if I push with my chakra on the little lever, rather than the blade…" The blade shot out from just above the arm's hand.

Kame nodded, although he couldn't help but feel that he'd been treated a little bit unfairly. "Master… Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

Kankuro shrugged. "I wanted to see if you could figure it out for yourself- which, evidently, you couldn't."

Kame's pride stung from that one. "But, there's no visible…"

"Ah, yes, the genius idea of making the delicate, secret mechanisms of the puppets open for everyone to see." Kankuro's raised eyebrow silenced his pupil. "The puppet style, more than any other method of battle, relies on the mechanics of the puppet itself. To succeed, you need great chakra control, great battlefield awareness, and great tactical intelligence. However, to _excel_ , you need not only to understand the puppet, but also to yourself create newer and better techniques." Kankuro reset the blade again and then set the weapon down onto the table, stepping back to allow him another try.

Kame nodded. Turning back to the puppet arm, he threw out the familiar thread of chakra to it, binding his chakra network to the receiving mark on the wood of the creation. Next, he focused himself completely on it, trying to feel the switch that he knew was there, sending little flutters of chakra like echolocation until he found what he was looking for. With a mental nudge, he pushed it back gently, and the blade sprang out! _Yes! I am the greatest puppet master of all time! I am a prodigy!_ Although the self-praise was a bit much, he was too proud of himself to stop it.

Kankuro raised an eyebrow as if he could tell what Kame was thinking. "Okay then, now that you've managed to catch up to what Sasori could do at age 7, let's move on." _Oh,_ Kame thought, deflating a bit. "Now listen up: Forget everything I said before, when it comes to _moving_ the puppet, you have to brute-force it."

Kame's eyes widened a bit as Kankuro continued. "There's no springs or mechanisms for this one, you're just going to have to move them with the threads. A word of warning, though, before you go and break anything else for me to repair- When you're moving puppets, there are a few basic rules. First, you can't move the threads through anything with its own chakra network, the threads will bend or maybe even break. Second, never move the puppets out of your own sight. Unless you've been hiding a sensory-type jutsu specialty from me, there's no way for you to know what's happening to the puppet when it's out of your line of sight. Third, if you have threads attached to multiple body parts, make sure that whatever movements you're trying to make it execute will work with each other. If you rotate an arm upwards while moving the body to the side, you have to take into account the total movement when attempting to move the arm and change your path accordingly."

Kame nodded. _I think I got all that,_ he thought, _three rules: don't go through chakra networks, don't go in blind, and think about the whole body when moving things._ He refocused himself, looking forwards, and saw Kankuro crossing his arms. "Let's see you try to move the arm, Kame." _The arm? But I could barely move the blade yesterday…_

Nevertheless, Kame gritted his teeth and signaled to the chakra thread. Remembering how much effort it had taken to move something using his willpower the day before, he gathered himself fully and _pushed_ as hard as he could. Surprisingly, instead of resisting him like he'd thought it would, the arm went flying off diagonally upwards inches from Kankuro's face and impaling itself in the ceiling with the blade he'd never retracted.

Sheepishly, he turned to see Kankuro glaring at him. "Master… I'm sorry…"

Kankuro narrowed his eyes. "When I said brute-force it, I didn't mean… _that_."

"It's just that last time I had to push the blade out, it took a lot of force, so…"

His master rolled his eyes. "Did it ever occur to you that when you did that, you were forcing the blade to carve through resistant metal and wood? And that maybe, when there was only air in the way, it might go a little easier? No, wait, who am I kidding, of course it didn't." Kame frowned, still staring at the floor, but looked up a little bit at Kankuro's next words. "But… good work. I didn't expect you to be able to move it so quickly and, apparently, easily. I can move up a little bit in your tranining to full puppet use."

Kame nodded, a smile creeping over his face, as Kankuro turned to unhook one of the mannequin-type puppets and bring it down for him to bind to.

* * *

When Kame finished that day's lessons, he had already managed to move around the larger training puppet Kankuro had finished for him. _I still have some leftover food,_ he thought. _Maybe I could invite Haku over to eat it with me?_ He decided to head to her house to ask her in person.

The route he took to his destination led him back through the downtown district, and uncomfortably close to the Hasagi family ramen shop. He hurried by, hoping that Tetsute would be out on a mission or training, but his hopes were dashed by a loud shout from above: "Yo, Kame! Stop right there, I want to talk to you!"

Wincing, he turned around to see not only Tetsute, but also Rakuyo making their way down from the roof of the restaurant, landing in front of him. Tetsute was out front, hands on his hips, wearing a classic smirk that Kame knew all too well on his face. "Kame, Kame, _Kame_ …" he said, dragging out the words in a patronizing voice. "You left so suddenly the other night, I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye…"

Kame rolled his eyes. He'd seen this same song and dance a thousand times, the casual lead in with sarcastic double-edged praise that Tetsute would follow up on with actual insults. _Wait, I have seen this a thousand times…_ Kame got lost in his thoughts again. _He did this at the academy. I was with him when he did this to other students… I laughed with him when he did this to other students! I was wrong when-_

Tetsute poked his chest. "You there, Kame? When I'm talking to you, I expect a _response_!" The last word was spoken with a full shove that knocked Kame back a few steps. He finally returned full attention to the situation at hand, looking up to see Tetsute smirking at him. "There we go…" he drawled, moving on to the casual tone that he used when talking to people who were scared of him.

Kame swallowed, mouth feeling strangely dry all of a sudden. "What do you want, Tetsute?"

Tetsute shrugged, wearing a nonplussed expression. "Well, what I want…? What I want is for you to come back, man." He put a hand on Kame's shoulder. "Ever since you got grouped up with those losers, you've been drifting away. Even worse, you actually defended Kodoku last night." Kame opened his mouth to fight back, but then at the use of the Kodoku name he remembered something terrible.

_Kame was back at the academy, sitting with Tetsute and Rakuyo at lunch break. "This Kodoku girl, she's really something else," Tetsute drawled. "Honestly, I don't know why she hasn't quit yet. Ever since she came to the academy, she's flunked every single ninjutsu test."_

_Kame and Rakuyo smirked a little, but Tetsute shook his head at them, grinning. "No no no, you think I'm exaggerating, playing up her bad scores… but I'm dead serious. She can't cast a single jutsu!" Kame let out a little laugh at that. Did she really think she'd be able to pass?_

_Rakuyo rolled her eyes. "She's pretty good at taijutsu, though…"_

_Tetsute wouldn't hear it. "Taijutsu. Tai. Ninjutsu. Nin. Which one of those two seems more like something a nin-ja would need? Any moron can get into a fistfight, but being a shinobi takes skill and mastery of jutsu. What makes her different than some common bandit?"_

_Rakuyo giggled. "The real question is, what makes her different than some drunk dude in a bar?"_

_Kame chuckled at that. "No, no, the drunk guy could still probably use more ninjutsu than she could!"_

_The three of them shared a final laugh at the expense of this girl, and then lunch break was over and the teacher was calling them back in._

Kame remembered it all now. Little mentions in passing, minor updates from Tetsute or Rakuyo about the 'Kodoku' girl's latest failure. The talks had been good for a quick laugh or to be briefly grateful that he wasn't like her, but nothing more. How could he have forgotten this?

_Rakuyo grimaced as she sat down at their usual bench, which Kame immediately picked up on. "What happened?"_

_"Oh, nothing, I just got set to spar with Kodoku today. She seriously has no self-control, huh? Just a friendly sparring match, but she went all-out on me like she had something to prove…" Rakuyo shrugged, and Kame wondered why that girl would attack her like that._

_Tetsute spoke up from Kame's other side. "She's always been that way, though… Don't you remember when we were kids- wait, no, you probably don't, your parents are nut jobs and trained you for all that time. Anyway, when I first met Kodoku, she…"_

At the time, Kame had been too momentarily distracted by reminder of his own early years to let Tetsute's next words sink in, but now in hindsight he could hear them all _too_ clearly.

_"She came over and tried to show off some jutsu that she knew._ _Thirty seconds later and she's still trying to cast it, but there's nothing happening, so I push her out of the way so I can show her how it's done. Instead of clearing out, though, she jumps on me like some kind of angry animal, and I have to defend myself and the other kids from her until my parents get there. After that, I assumed that she'd learned not to freak out on people, but if she just did it to you…"_

_Kame watched Tetsute and Rakuyo share a loaded look, and then Tetsute turned to him. "I think we need to teach her again, eh? You gonna come along, Kame?"_

_Kame shook his head. "No, I've got to get home. My parents are leaving for the border again tonight, so I want to spend some time with them. Plus," he said, smirking at them, "if you two need my help to deal with one girl who can't even use ninjutsu or genjutsu, then..."_

_Another laugh went through the group at his well-delivered insult._

"Kame." _I did know her before! What is wrong with me!? Is there something going on with my memory!?_ "Kame." _Why did I even help her at the graduation exam!? Did I get amnesia? How did I go from laughing at her to seeing who she really was overnight?_ "Kame!" The third repetition of his name was accompanied by a shove that landed him painfully on his ass. Tetsute stood over him, glaring daggers as anger finally made it into his voice. "What the hell has been up with you lately, Kame? You've been ignoring me all the time, you keep staring off into space for no reason, and you actually started rolling around in the dirt with Kodoku and company!"

Kame tried to get it together, still reeling from his memories. "I… I don't really know… I forgot how much we used to…" _hurt people_ , he wanted to say, but couldn't force the words out.

Tetsute took his stilted half-sentence the wrong way. "We used to be friends. We used to agree that people like Loverboy and Kodoku didn't belong at the academy and sure as hell didn't belong among the Sand Shinobi. I really think teaming up with those losers is having a terrible influence on you, man."

Rakuyo joined in. "Are you honestly going to say that she wouldn't be a liability? What happens when you're in a battle and she gets hit with a genjutsu? Now what? The enemy has a prisoner and you have to either let her die or compromise her mission. Her dropping out would probably be for the best not just for you, but for her as well."

Kame recovered enough to think fully, and as he considered the situation he realized what he had to do. _Tetsute and Rakuyo… they think that by trying to break up our team, they're saving me,_ he thought. _As long as they're sure in that purpose, nothing is going to stop them from keeping up with their constant attempts. Maybe if I just go along with it… maybe the real me is the one that they know…_

' _I swear to save Haku_.' His words from the Kazekage's office cleared his mind. _I can't abandon her now; I'll never forgive myself. If Tetsute and Rakuyo think they can save me, then I have to make them realize that I don't want to be saved._ Kame looked up into the waiting eyes of Tetsute and then chuckled a little bit. "Wow, look at you two, saving me. I'm so incredibly honored to receive the attention of you heroes."

Tetsute's eyes narrowed as Kame rose to his feet, dusting all of the dust and sand from his pants. "We're not…"

"Oh, get off of your high horse, Tetsute." Kame leaned back a little more casually, crossing his arms and, although he would never admit it, doing his best to emulate Miriki. "I don't need you to save me because I'm completely fine. Although, to be honest, now I'm a little worried about you if you get this upset when a friend stops hanging out with you." Tetsute started to say something back but Kame didn't stop. "I just got tired of dealing with you two whining constantly about your classmates. There's only so much insecurity I can take, and the endless complaining about how you two were 'big, strong ninja who couldn't stand to be around the lesser creatures' pushed me past my limit.

"Have you ever stopped to think about how pathetic it makes you seem to care that much about how you look? To actually attack other students because you don't want them to make you look bad?" Kame rolled his eyes, secretly hoping that this tirade would break whatever strange fixation they had with him. "I don't want to be on a team with you two. I would rather be on a team with _Kodoku_ than you two, because ironically, she's the one who is less self-conscious about her abilities." Not strictly true, but it should get Tetsute mad enough to…

 _Yep_. Tetsute's face was flushed with rage and his hand twitched towards the kunai pouch on his waist. "Kame, you… what part of insecure…" For once, the ever-confident genin had no comeback. Kame worried for a moment that he may have overdone it when Tetsute grabbed a kunai and half-stepped forwards- _I don't know if I can take on both of them at once-_ but the point was moot because the other boy simply snarled and turned around to walk away.

"Yikes," Rakuyo noted conversationally, raising an eyebrow at Kame. "I guess she really did a number on you. Ah well." She shrugged, turning away to follow Tetsute and obviously a lot less affected by Kame's harsh words.

 _I think that's the last I'm going to see of them,_ thought Kame with more remorse than he'd realized. _Huh. As much as their actions disgust me now, I guess they were still my friends for a very long time…_ He let himself be sad for a moment, but soon the part of him that mourned their friendship had drifted to the back of his mind. By the time he found himself standing before the steps leading up to Haku's home, all traces of Tetsute and Rakuyo were gone from his mind.

Midway up the steps, he started to hear the sounds of battle, small impacts and quick feet against the sandy ground. Hurrying up the rest of the steps, upon cresting the top of the hill he realized what it was- Shira and Haku were at it again, sparring at the same blinding speed they'd had yesterday. However, this time the fight was just a little bit more even. Haku was still at a deficit, but now she was managing actual offense. In fact, he could see her putting Shira's advice from yesterday into her techniques; instead of trying to return to defense every time he landed a blow she chained her movements together and flowed around him.

This time, their match ended when Haku noticed Kame and stopped, with Shira pausing briefly before dropping his stance as well. She waved at him as she jogged over, smiling and asking, "What brought you over here, Kame?"

"Uh… It was…" _Wait, what was I over here for? I knew when I left Kankuro, but then…_ "Umm…" Kame furiously tried to remember. _I was going to… oh, yeah!_ "I was going to ask if you wanted to come and eat at my place? I mean, do you have any dinner plans?"

Haku shook her head. "No, I was just going to eat some more… it doesn't matter. I'll totally eat with you."

Before Kame could finish the conversation, a new voice came from behind him. "Hey, guys, long time no see!" _Not long enough,_ Kame thought, as Miriki lifted himself up onto the plane, followed by Deihaka. Miriki continued in the same 'greeting a distant relative' tone: "Me and Deihaka-sensei have made some real progress!" He glanced at Shira briefly. "And I see that you guys found Haku her trainer, I'm glad I could help with that."

"What." Miriki had been late that day and hadn't seen them since.

"Well, if I hadn't had the good judgement to show up late, then you guys wouldn't have had all that time to decide on finding this Shira guy." Miriki was grinning from ear to ear despite the ridiculousness of the things he was saying.

Deihaka must have noticed Kame readying a withering verbal assault, because he hurriedly stepped in between the two genin and changed the subject. "Anyway, we're here because I want to have a team dinner to catch up. I'm buying."

Haku immediately agreed. "That's cool, me and Kame were already gonna eat together so we might as well make it a team thing…"

Kame sighed. "Sure, why not."

The jonin smiled. "Great, then let's go. Does anyone have any problem with going to Fukagaki's?" The restaurant in question was middle-end, had decent food, was owned by a nice retired shinobi, and most importantly was very far away from the Hasagi ramen shop.

"That sounds great!" Kame said, along with Haku and Miriki voicing their own support. Deihaka started down the steps, followed by Kame's two teammates, but before he could go he heard Shira speak behind him.

"Kame, do you know why I came back to this village?"

 _Oh crap, I forgot about him…_ Kame was ashamed for not thinking about Haku's teacher's dinner plans, and forgot what the question was. "What?"

Shira sighed. "I came here because you reminded me of Yome."

 _Where is this coming from?_ So far, half of his interactions with Shira had consisted of the older ninja messing with him. "Thanks…?"

Shira could clearly tell how awkward Kame felt. "You don't have to thank me… And I didn't mean anything having to do with you as a person, your personality and hers couldn't be more different. But when I look at what you do, and how much you want to help Haku, I can see Yome's kindness in your heart. Don't let this shinobi world take that away from you." Shira let out a long sigh, and then rolled his eyes. "Wow, I really am getting old. That sounded like something my grandmother would say… You'd better go catch up to your team."

Kame glanced behind himself instinctively. When he turned back to say goodbye to Shira, the old man was already gone, leaving Kame to run off. Even as Kame caught up to the others, though, his head was still spinning from Shira's words.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Graduation Exam Data: Tetsute Hasagi**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Seijo Namae) Notes: _Excellent grasp of earth jutsu, capable of using techniques of chunin-level complexity_

Genjutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Maindo Kuso) Notes: _Able to cast and dispel at a solid genin level_

Taijutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Saitama Kenji) Notes: _Physically fast and strong, decent grasp of martial technique  
_ \- Instructor (Nagano Tsukia) Notes: _Above-average aim with thrown weapons_

Appearance: _Age fourteen._ _Tall height (5'10"), highly muscular build. Short-cut brown hair and brown eyes, typically wears standard-issue athletic garb with muted colors underneath genin vest._

Attitude: _Ambition drives him to look down on other students, but his superiority in most areas allows him to get away with it. Able to befriend and work with other top students. Treats teachers with an acceptable level of deference and follows orders to a satisfactory degree._

History: _After father_ [Redacted] _. Raised as a civilian, but sought out ninja training of his own free will and tested into academy. Started even with other ninja children but quickly pushed ahead due to his dedication to self-improvement, graduated along with two others (Rakuyo Kuyanari, Kame Hakiara) at the top of his class._


	10. Acceptance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to hear advice on my writing, no matter how negative it may be. I'm always looking to improve, so (if you feel like it) a review would be much appreciated! I'm also ready and willing to respond to any questions you may have.

"Here you go!" Fukagaki came over with a few platters of food, giving each member of team eight what they'd ordered, with Kame and Deihaka receiving sashimi, Haku a bowl of ramen, and Miriki a small salad. The gathered ninja all took a second to enjoy the sight and smell of their food before digging into it. Kame froze briefly when he saw Haku beside him devouring her ramen at lightning speed, which sent a pang of sadness through him. _She must be subconsciously afraid of getting kicked out…_

"Hey, Fukagaki-san! Can I get another one?" _Or maybe she's just_ hungry, Kame conceded, _and I'm overthinking it_. The old shopowner smiled craftily and Deihaka paled slightly as the realization of how expensive treating Haku might be sank in. _But shouldn't he be able to afford- wait, are jonin paid more than lower-ranking ninja?_ Kame wondered if Deihaka got paid extra for taking on a squad of genin. Ninja in the Hidden Sand were paid amounts calculated off of the difficulty of mission completed, and as a result, higher ranks tended to get paid more, because their missions were A-B rank as opposed to genins' C-D rank missions. Bounties were different, a single-sum amount based upon the rank of missing-ninja captured that several lands would pool in for.

Kame thought he knew why Deihaka was so annoyed by his teaching job. "Deihaka-sensei, since you took us on as your pupils, are you getting paid for our D-ranks like a rank genin?"

Deihaka looked at him crabbily. "No, but I'm sure as hell not getting paid as much as I used to. Teaching a genin squad is treated as an extended B-Rank mission, so I'm getting paid for that- as opposed to my normal A-Rank or higher. So yeah, I'm having to cut back on the-" he coughed a little bit and reoriented himself. "I mean, I love teaching! I can't get drunk, I can't sleep in, I have to make less money, I'm always worried that I'm gonna..." he plastered a forced smile on his face. "The 'Joy of Teaching' makes it all worth it, trust me!"

Then came an awkward silence that stretched until Fukagaki returned with the second bowl Haku had ordered as if he'd known that she'd ask for it ahead of time. Deihaka took the opportunity to clear his throat and then speak again, on a more composed note this time. "Well, team eight, all of you are gathered here, so I have a question. Are you confident in your abilities?"

Kame took a moment to think about that one. "Well, I… It depends on what metric-"

"Yes!" Miriki talked right over him. "I'm totally confident in my abilities. I've earned an A-plus on _every_ mission I've been on-" _He's only been on one mission._ "I finally got my Hatogan stage one unlocked, and I know two different jutsu now!"

Deihaka nodded and turned to Haku. She hesitated a little bit, as if she was confused that he meant her, before responding. "I'm… I think I can probably take on another mission, if that's what you mean. My taijutsu is improving and Shira-sensei said he would think of some new and better ways for me to use my lightning stance… and also teach me something called the Seven Heavens?"

Kame decided to contribute his opinion before Deihaka would ask. "I'm confident that I can do better than before. My puppet jutsu lessons are coming along and my Gale Force Jutsu is down to three seconds of charge-up time."

Deihaka nodded, briefly seeming to think something over, and then turned back to them again. "You all have only been on one mission, but it was at least B-rank and you all held your own. I think… I think you all may be ready."

"For what?" Kame said, thinking _get to the point already, Deihaka-sensei._

"For the chunin exams." _What!?_ Kame was shocked. _We went up against three chunin and I almost died… well, I guess I did take one of them out… but-_ "Don't get me wrong, I don't expect any of you to pass, but I'm making an executive teaching decision that the chunin exams will maybe probably most likely be a good learning experience…" Kame would have been a lot less nervous if his sensei had said that with a little more confidence and without the words 'executive teaching decision'. _He's a lot more inexperienced than he lets on._

Haku's third bowl of ramen arrived and she started to dig into it, so with an air of desperation Deihaka resumed his speaking. "Anyway, I spoke to Senshiko and she's entering her genin, so I guess it can't hurt for me to do it, too… besides, the exams might be dangerous, but usually the deaths are kept to a minimum… plus it's a good chance for you all to scope out the top competition from your generation."

Miriki nodded sagely. "Yes, this seems like a great opportunity to scope out the… competition… I'm sure that there are many gir- I mean, kunoichi that will be a great challenge." _Oh my god, is my chance to participate in the chunin exams going to end up being Miriki's wingman while he hits on our entire generation of genin!?_ Kame watched his dreams of intense competition, difficult challenges, and eventual victory through ingenuity and wit fall apart, replaced by the sight of Miriki being swarmed by girls.

Haku tentatively raised a hand before she spoke. "I… I would like to have another couple of days to train with Shira-sensei… if that's all right?"

Deihaka laughed. "Yeah, it is. You can have way, _way_ more than that, in fact. The chunin exams aren't for another three and a half months, and we _will_ take on a quite a few missions before they start, but I just wanted to get a quick snapshot of all of your skills." He turned to Kame. "I also want you to start coming to our morning lessons again if you really have fully learned the Gale Force Jutsu. I have a few more that I want to teach you, and you can keep practicing the Gale Force Jutsu until you've mastered it. That goes for you too, Haku, except with you I want to practice… something else."

Haku nodded as the last traces of her third bowl disappeared into her mouth, then started to turn around towards Fukagaki. Before she could order another bowl, Deihaka was waving the man over and pulling out his wallet.

* * *

"This is pretty boring," Miriki complained to the rest of the team. They were walking alongside a merchant's cart, which caused them to move a lot slower than their normal traveling. A simple escort mission to a nearby town was probably going to cost them the entire day, which was annoying given that it was one of very few left before they headed off to the chunin exams. Three months had blown by in the blink of an eye as Kame undertook missions and trained under two different teachers, time only seeming to move faster as the exams approached.

Deihaka tried to improve their spirits. "Look, not all ninja work is fighting epic battles and saving the day, okay? We all have to start somewhere."

Miriki sighed dramatically. "But this job could probably be taken by non-ninja. Why are we- and more importantly, an A-class jonin like you- wasting time on this crap?"

Deihaka opened and closed his mouth without any sound a few times, finally conceding the point: "I… you know, _I_ don't want to walk miles on end next to a wagon either. I'm not going to defend the system, I'm just here to make sure that you follow it."

Kame, on the other hand, was finding a lot of happiness in the peace of mind that came with this mission. His mind was free to brainstorm as much as it wanted while his feet went on autopilot, and he had a few theories that he was definitely going to to test out when he got home. The walk also proved a chance for him to strengthen his puppet movement, as floating beside him was a large chunk of spare wood that Kankuro had slapped a seal on and given him. By now, his chakra control and reserves were strong enough that holding the wood in place wasn't taxing him to any dangerous lengths.

It had been three and a half months since they'd decided on going into the chunin exams, and Kame was making sure to make the most out of every day. When he wasn't working with Kankuro or Deihaka, he was practicing puppetry, ninjutsu, or both. _If I improve enough, maybe Kankuro will even let me take Crow to the chunin exams!_ It was a pretty great thought.

Deihaka was helping him whittle down the Gale Force Jutsu charging time, but was also teaching him another technique: the Wind Barrier Jutsu. It was surprising to Kame the difference between knowing and mastering a jutsu; he'd managed to cast the Wind Barrier Jutsu on his first attempt but to sustain and control it was another matter entirely. While he'd been training, Miriki and Haku were no less busy. Miriki was practicing Water Style, which was a pretty poor tactical move considering that the odds of Sand shinobi being in a battleground with a ready supply of the necessary water were pretty low. Haku, on the other hand, wasn't learning any jutsu at all. Instead, she spent her practice time with Deihaka training her dodging instincts and learning how to evade ninjutsu attacks. Deihaka's highly malleable iron sand was excellent for mimicking various elemental attacks, and she was improving by the day.

During those fourteen weeks, they'd also been on several missions, but none at the level of their first one, and quite a few that were frankly insulting. Escorts were the most common, but there were also a scattering of other jobs, most of which somehow required _less_ engagement. Kame had long since learned to keep his expectations low after his first "Secure Dangerous Prisoner" mission had turned out to be watching a toddler for four hours. Genin work was ridiculously easy.

Of the eight times they'd been called to provide armed escorts, none of their patrons had been attacked. _That might just be because the attacks were called off when they saw the ninja,_ Kame theorized, before looking around and scratching off that theory. _Haku doesn't have any visible weapons or ninja tools, me and Deihaka probably just look bored, and Miriki looks rich, so he probably actually increases the odds_. _Nobody's calling off an attack because of us… then again, these merchants have been pretty scared, so maybe we do look tough!_ Kame puffed out his chest a little bit, imagining bandits running off at the mere sight of him.

At that moment, in a feat of irony that couldn't possibly just be coincidental, a large group of armed men dressed in blacks and browns came charging out of the treeline. A couple of arrows whizzed by, but any that would have hit the cart or the people around it were stopped by Deihaka's iron sand. The merchant yelped in fear and ducked inside his cart, yelling out to the ninja, "This is what I paid you for! Get them!"

Kame wondered why they'd failed to notice the bandits, before realizing that the enemies were actually hundreds of feet away and not closing the distance very fast. _Wow, these guys are dumb,_ he thought, _D_ _o they think that they'll manage to win against us from a distance?_ He rapidly folded together a straight-flying paper airplane, took aim… and then dropped his arm. _Damn, they're too far away_. While the paper airplanes were great as a way to get a huge amount of destructive power with a decent amount of control for no chakra cost whatsoever, they did have a relatively limited range.

 _Well then, I guess I'll just have to close the gap_. Kame started to rush forward, performing the handsigns he'd been learning before and channeling his chakra in a swirling pattern around him. Envisioning the pure wind cutting through all before it, his chakra gusted into the physical world as a twisting column of air surrounding him. "Wind Barrier Jutsu!"

He continued his charge, and as the bandits turned to face him, their arrows were knocked aside by the tornado. "What the hell- these shinobi are somethin' else!" he heard one of them mutter, which brought a little grin of pride to his face. Once he was within fifty feet of the attackers, he saw them drop the bows and draw weapons for close-quarters. That left him open to use his weaponry, so he dismissed his Wind Barrier (not a moment too soon; that thing drained a _lot_ of chakra). Seeing the angry bandits closing on him fast, he whipped out two paperbombs and tossed them to the earth in front of him, then readied and threw two more paper airplanes.

For once, the enemy didn't seem to realize what the airplanes did and took them to be ordinary projectile attacks. _Well, I guess that's that,_ thought Kame as he made the snake seal and detonated the planes right in the middle of the enemy force. Cries of anguish came from the resulting smoke cloud, but he didn't let down his guard. _Those bombs were made with less chakra than normal, designed to shock and injure rather than kill._

He wanted to disable as many of the bandits as possible without killing them. They hadn't technically harmed him, so he wasn't sure that it was morally right to execute them. _Besides, if I can spare them and I don't, then I killed someone who was weaker than me just because I wanted to_.

His overconfidence cost him again, though, when three of them came charging out from within the smoke without a mark on them. _How!?_ Kame had to dart backwards and blow his preliminary defenses, the two paperbombs he'd laid on the ground earlier taking out all three. Slightly shaken, he now watched the smoke closely, and as it began to clear out, he saw the walls of earth that had sprung into being and protected the bandits. Most of them had escaped the blasts completely, although an unlucky few who'd been just outside the wall's protection had been downed.

Kame took a quick count of the thieves. There were three on the ground before him, three that had been taken out in the initial blast, and an additional seven left standing. One of the seven, a burly man, was dressed in browns rather than the blacks of the others and had their hands in a sign. When they released it, the walls crumbled away to dust. _Did they hire a shinobi? That must be why the Hidden Sand has been getting so many escort requests lately…_

The man shouted, "Crushing Boulder Jutsu!" Kame, at the last minute, noticed the shadow of something above him. A quick glance skyward revealed that the man had summoned a large chunk of stone a few feet above him, forcing him to find a way to escape. _Alright then, let's do it._ He dropped one of his windbombs behind him with one hand, and then reached out to the wooden slab still attached to him via chakra thread.

"Substitution!" He swapped places with the wood, which was promptly crushed by the boulder, sending a brief shudder through him when he imagined himself getting caught there. Now ten feet away from where he'd stood, he smirked and made the snake seal.

The windbomb he'd dropped imploded, but since it was pinned between a literal rock and a hard place all of the force was shunted into the easier to move of the two. The boulder was launched back towards its summoner, who growled in anger and made another sign, dismissing the stone into harmless sand. As he was pelted with the dust fragments, he made the mistake of covering his eyes and turning away a little.

That was all Haku needed.

Team eight's kunoichi swept through the bandits before they could even react, only slowing from a blur for the few moments where her fist was swinging forward into the jutsu user's stomach. The blow sank deep into his chest and then launched him backwards, sending him flying back a good fifteen feet before he rolled to a stop.

 _Well, that one's going to leave a mark,_ thought Kame, beginning folds on two more paper airplanes.

The remaining six bandits finally seemed to realize what was going on, but with a shout of "First Heaven: Breath of Release!" Haku moved faster than they could even hope to counter and slid through two of them to charge the burly man. He'd risen to one knee, making a set of handsigns that spelled some sort of incoming attack: "Earth Style: Arrowhead Jutsu!"

A series of small sharpened stone triangles whizzed forward through the air, a few of them punching into Haku and visibly drawing blood, causing her to cry out in pain and rage. Kame started forward to help her-

But before he could move, Haku powered through the projectiles and slammed a thundering right hook directly into her foe's face with an awful, wet-sounding crunch, enough to drop him immediately and draw more blood than Kame had expected to see.

By the time the bandits finished their turn, their ace in the hole was out of comission, and Haku stood over his body with arms slightly raised at her sides and balled into fists. When she turned around to look at them with wild purple eyes, they folded faster than one of Kame's paperbombs and begged for mercy. Something about the sight of grown men grovelling at the feet of a fourteen-year-old girl made Kame snicker.

Now that the threat was gone, Deihaka stepped away from guarding the cart and walked up to the bandits on the ground. He grabbed the closest one by the hair and lifted them up, all traces of his normal, awkward, often-drunk self gone. "Who else is there? How many people are in your group?" Even his voice was harsher now. _Is this his personality in battle? I didn't really get to talk with him last time…_ Kame wondered if _all_ the eccentric jonin he'd heard or read about had a serious side.

The bandit, visibly quivering, said, "N- N- Nobody, it's j- just us, I swear!"

Deihaka grunted, dropping the man and turning around to face his team. "Okay, gather what restraints you can and tie them up, we're gonna take them in." Kame nodded and reached into his pack. Although the recommended ninja tools consisted only of a bare minimum of flash paper, kunai, and shuriken, he was never one to hit the bare minimum. After digging through his spare clothing, extra rations, medical kit, spare flash paper, assortment of paperbombs, ink, and journal, he finally located the length of rope and lifted it out triumphantly.

He handed it to Deihaka, who quickly cut it into shorter pieces and bound the hands of all twelve of the captured bandits. For the larger jutsu user, he visibly put two fingers over the man's crushed throat and then shook his head, stepping back. Haku was beside him in an instant, looking at him worriedly. "Deihaka-sensei? What's wrong, why aren't you binding that one?" Her tone of voice reminded Kame of when his younger self would ask his parents why they were leaving, knowing full well the reason but wanting to ignore it. _I guess if I were the one... if I'd just killed my first person, I don't know how I'd react._

The all-business Deihaka that had emerged during the combat didn't seem to bother with tact. "He's dead, Haku."

She didn't seem to register the words for a few seconds, but after they sank in she looked down at the body, blinking a few times and slowing her breathing. Kame looked away, not knowing what to do or say. In the end, it was Miriki who walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Haku, that's not you." _What the hell is he talking about?_ Kame noticed his eyes had changed; the pupils had been replaced with a three-pronged star that stretched across his bright blue irises.

Whatever he'd said seemed to work, because Haku visibly calmed down a little bit and stepped back from the corpse. She walked back towards the cart, and Miriki followed her. _Are we just going to leave the body here?_ Kame didn't really understand who cleaned up after battles, especially little skirmishes like this one. ' _Clean up'? What am I talking about, this is a corpse of another human, I'm not going to leave it to rot in the sun._ Deihaka walked to the cart with the others, but Kame stayed put. "Guys, I'm going to bury this… umm… I'll catch up, okay?"

Deihaka shrugged. "Make sure that you look for a headband first, though. He might be a missing-ninja, so if Haku want to... claim the... bounty..." He trailed off as he finally seemed to return to his usual more awkward self and read the situation. _I think I'll look for it anyway,_ Kame thought. _Even if Haku doesn't want it, it'll do some good for families of this guy's victims if they can get some peace of mind._ Then he morbidly chuckled a little bit- _Plus, money is money._

As the others walked off, Miriki didn't even turn around, but Kame saw Haku glance at him with some combination of emotions he couldn't identify in her eyes. He turned back the task he'd assigned himself and winced; the man was even bigger up close- luckily, he had a plan for this. He grabbed a kunai and started to dig, making it about three feet deep until he figured it would be enough, then reached into his pack, removed three normal-strength bombs, dropped them in, backed away a good distance, and then detonated them. A huge plume of earth and dirt shot into the sky, raining down all around the blast point. When he stepped forward to further inspect his handiwork, he saw that a five-foot-wide, four-foot-deep hole had been opened.

The rest of it went by quickly. After grabbing the scratched headband inside the man's pocket, he rolled the body over into the hole as best as he could, then kicked all of the dirt surrounding the grave back into it. While the job wasn't perfect and there was still a depression in the earth, it was as good as it was going to get. _Rest in peace,_ Kame thought, before- _Wait, am I supposed to say that? Should I be mourning him?_ He hurried off to catch up to the team before he could get any more morally confused.

* * *

"Okay, now stab with the right arm." Kame twitched the correct finger and Crow's arm swung forward as the blade emerged, stabbing into the stomach of the training dummy. "Good, now left." Another finger, another swing. "Poisoned Needle." Kame thought for a split second before sending a flutter of chakra to Crow's head, opening the mouth and releasing a needle that whizzed forward and plunged into the neck of the dummy. "Okay, now roll yourself backwards while stabbing with both of Crow's arms." _What?_ Kame did his best to roll backwards while maintaining the chakra threads and ordering Crow to attack, but it proved to be too much. While upside-down during the roll he moved the arms the wrong way and Crow simply swiped behind itself.

To add insult to injury, focusing too much on the puppet caused Kame to ungracefully flop out onto his back instead of rolling. Kankuro raised an eyebrow at the display of awkwardness, and Kame hurriedly got up and reattached himself to Crow. Before he could try again, though, his master stopped him.

"Kame, it's late, and you have to depart for the chunin exams tomorrow. Go home, eat, sleep. Another hour of practice won't make any real difference." _I can't believe it. Tomorrow, we leave for the… wait, in that case-_

He glanced at Crow before he could stop himself. Kankuro clearly noticed it, but just stood there, arms crossed, waiting. Kame cleared his throat a little bit, gathering up the nerve to make his request: "Master, can I take- I mean, may I please take Crow to the chunin exams?" He looked down at Kankuro's feet, waiting for a response, but flicked his gaze upwards curiously at the sound of laughter.

Kankuro was laughing at him, and laughing _hard_. Kame could feel his face blushing red as his master wheezed out a few words in between laughs. "You… take Crow… to the…" he dissolved back into chuckles. Kame could only stand there and wait for what seemed like forever, until the ex-jonin wiped a few tears from his eyes and seemed to recover enough to make a coherent sentence. "No, you can't _take Crow to the chunin exams…_ "

Sensing another fit of laughter, Kame interjected in his own defense. "Why not? It's not like you'll be using it!"

Kankuro snorted. "And with your level of proficiency, neither will you!" Another round of chortling, and Kame gritted his teeth in frustration. _I'm not that bad… I mean, I couldn't handle rolling while double attacking, but when am I ever going to do that in a…_ He remembered the fight a few days ago, when he'd had to roll backwards and drop a paperbomb at the same time.

"Fine." Kame shook his head, trying not to feel bitter.

"Look, brat," Kankuro said, "It's not an insult to you or your skills, but... right now, in a real fight, Crow would _decrease_ your chances of winning. You're just not at the level required to make the chakra and attention costs worth it." _I know that,_ thought Kame. "But… I talked with your squad leader about you entering the chunin exams, and his explanation of it being a chance for you to practice did change my mind slightly. When I was a genin, the chunin exams were cutthroat, but I understand things have… loosened up a little bit since then."

Kame nodded along, unsure where his master was going with this. Kankuro's eyes briefly drifted off in remembrance of something, but then snapped back to the subject at hand. "So… oh, yeah. If you are to practice against other ninja, I want you to see what the basics of puppet jutsu feel like, at least. That's why I put together a new puppet for the task."

Kankuro turned around and picked up a moderately-sized object from the workbench behind him. When it was brought into the light, Kame could see it more clearly: It was small, maybe one foot from end to end, and had a curving body that ended with a larger head carved to look like an insect's, with pincers and a hole where the mouth was. Two wings extended from the back, two pairs bent wooden legs ending in metal blades were embedded in the front, and its tail ended in a larger metal blade. "This is Wasp," Kankuro said proudly.

He went on to explain all of Wasp's details and hidden weapons. A mechanism within the body fed needles to a launcher in the mouth. The legs could be fired off as weapons but not controlled separately, as they were too small to accommodate the necessary chakra receptors. The wings would act as stabilizers to keep it from accidentally flipping or getting flung away.

Kame swallowed as he looked at the thing. _It's not what I imagined, but…_ he thought about it for a few seconds before letting himself smile widely. "Thanks, master!" He accepted the puppet and broke it down into its component parts to help with moving it, before leaving for his home. _I can make this work…_

When he woke up the next morning, neither packing his things nor a quick breakfast helped settle his riled nerves. He stuffed a few new ninja tools into his new pack, all bought with the ransom money that Haku hadn't wanted. The man she'd killed was called Kosa the Boulder, a D-Rank missing ninja who'd never passed the chunin exams and had left the Hidden Stone Village after his fourth failure. He'd popped up around the lands, working as a mercenary-for-hire, and had killed a few people in the process. Haku had brightened up a little bit at that, perhaps alleviating some of the moral weight from her shoulders.

After one last check to make sure he had everything, including the component parts of Wasp, he walked downstairs to see his parents there. "Come here, son!" His father opened his arms for a hug, which Kame gave him, then his mother joined in. After a few moments, his dad pushed him back to smile and meet his gaze. "I'm so proud of you, heading off to the chunin exams only months after becoming a genin!"

Kame futilely tried to keep the blood from rushing to his cheeks. "Thanks, dad." In that moment, he briefly forgot the butterflies in his stomach, but after leaving his house they returned in force. _The chunin exams... there's a reason that people treat chunin and genin so differently. Sure, the mortality rate has gone down with the years, but individual high-ranking ninja have gotten significantly stronger. With the ninja wars gone, people can afford to spend more time teaching children the basics and letting them forge their own style, rather than prepare them for combat before they're even fifteen. The villages have shared far more information, which means that education everywhere has improved. That means that my chunin exams will..._ a chill ran down his spine. _I might have a more difficult time of it than Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara did._

His anxiety ran more and more rampant, eating away at the false confidence that had been there the previous night at Kankuro's workshop. For once, he walked to the team meeting place rather than running. Upon his arrival, Deihaka, Miriki, and Haku were all already there, having shown up early, but when they saw him, their shouted greetings were the things that finally got rid of his nervousness.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Graduation Data: Rakuyo Kuyanari**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Seijo Namae) Notes: _Wind change of nature coupled with talent for accuracy and chakra control surpassing most of her classmates_

Genjutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Maindo Kosu) Notes: _Able to cast and dispel genjutsu at an acceptable level_

Taijutsu: A  
\- Instructor (Saitama Kenji) Notes: _Decently s_ _killed in hand-to-hand combat  
_ \- Instructor (Nagano Tsukia) Notes: _Generational talent with thrown weapons, near-jonin-level accuracy and power_

Appearance: _Age fourteen. Moderate height (5'4"), athletic build, with black hair typically kept in a ponytail and hazel eyes. Typically wears regulation shinobi clothing with insignia of the Kuyanari clan beneath Sand genin vest, with extra weaponry strapped wherever she can reach._

Attitude: _Demonstrates competitiveness even among the top of her graduating class. Quick to speak about her clan and ancestry, perhaps motivated by their expectations of her. Troublingly dismissive of classmates with less heritage, with the exception of one (Kame Hakiara)._

History: _Comes from Kuyanari clan, which is one of the original founding clans of the Hidden Sand and has been producing Sand shinobi for countless generations. Parents both jonin with relatively successful careers, and three out of four grandparents fought in the Fourth Shinobi World War. Hailed as a prodigy within her clan and proved it by succeeding at the Sand Shinobi Academy, where she competed for top of her class in every category._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's one arc complete! The theme song I'd use for it would probably be Snow Fairy, but that's maybe just because I've been on a colossal Fairy Tail bender recently. Side note: damn near every Fairy Tail theme song is an absolute banger and you cannot convince me otherwise.


	11. The Outgoing

Kame's first thought upon entering the Village Hidden in the Leaves was, _Is this really all there is to it?_ To be fair, on the several-day-long journey over, he'd probably been building it up it in his mind- no, the overselling had started a long time ago, when he'd first begun reading about Naruto Uzumaki. _I'd been preparing myself to deal with a bit of disappointment, but… I mean, come on._ The Village Hidden in the Sand looked a hundred times more… well… powerful. The Leaf had a small border wall far outside the actual village as its only visible defense.

 _Then again, we did lose an offensive war to them,_ Kame considered. _I think I'm going to keep an eye out as to how that happened._ His attentions were yanked back to the task at hand by an elderly woman approaching them with intent in her stride. As she got closer, he got a better look at her. She might have been blonde once, but now her hair was almost all grey, flaring out in four sections behind her head. On her back was a large fan, which immediately tipped Kame off as to her identity.

 _Oh, it's the Kazekage's sister. Temari?_ Kame had only heard stories about the other sibling of Lord Gaara before, as she'd moved to the Hidden Leaf long before he'd been born. Was she greeting the incoming team because of her past with the Sand? As she closed the last couple of steps, she waved a hand at them with vigor beyond her years and smiled. "Hey, Deihaka and... Deihaka's genin."

Deihaka replied to her with a familiarity that belied some history he hadn't told them. "Hey, Temari. It's been a while, eh?"

She nodded. "Yes… I was wondering if you were going to show up to the exams at all. You were slated to get here yesterday."

Deihaka froze. "Is today not the fifteenth?"

Temari shook her head. "No, it's the sixteenth." A slow smile crept across her face at Deihaka's rapidly widening eyes. "But, that still gives you… thirteen minutes to show up before the chunin exams start." Deihaka stood completely frozen, paling rapidly, and Kame wondered if maybe he'd had a heart attack. Temari, still smiling widely, jerked her head towards a large building at the end of the long street. "Go on, you can make it. Probably."

Deihaka finally seemed to get back to reality and wheezed out, "Go. Go! Go!" He sprinted off in the other direction, followed immediately by Haku. Kame shrugged before chasing after him as well, leaving Miriki to decide whether he wanted to participate in the exam or in the Hidden Leaf's dating scene.

When they reached the building, Deihaka didn't even slow, charging straight through the doorway panting like a madman. By the time Kame caught up, he'd already filled out two pages of a four-page document. He finished the other two in a matter of seconds and then slammed it in front of Kame. "Sign… here… _now_ …"

Kame did as he was told, a little bit put off by Deihaka's reaction. _Then again, if I was in charge of a squad of genin and missed an entire day… I don't think I'd take it very well, either._ After Haku signed, Miriki came through the door and gave his own signature, brooding in annoyance. Deihaka all but threw the papers at the poor receptionist, snatched a small pile of three cards, and handed them to the three genin before pointing them to a flight of stairs. "Okay, here's your testing identification numbers. You all are great and I believe in you, blah blah blah, now go!"

The team eight genin shared a glance at each other before starting up the steps. As they walked away, Miriki muttered under his breath but loud enough for Kame to hear, "Gee, thanks for the encouraging words, sensei."

At the end of the stairs was a large door to their right with a sign that said "Chunin Exams" over it. Kame, somehow having ended up in front of the other two, started forwards toward it, but then froze in hesitation. _After this, it's all-out competition against ninja from other lands. There's no more room for training or messing up. I'm… Can I really do this? What if-_

Miriki tapped him on the shoulder, stepping forward with the three-pointed star in his eyes. "Relax, Kame, we're going to be fine. You aren't going to fail and even if you do, it won't be an embarrassment for the whole village." Kame frowned at the comforting words from someone who typically annoyed him so much and, anxious to escape the situation, pushed open the door.

Inside the room sat a huge number of people, varying in age from some that looked even younger than Kame to several young adults probably in the double digits of failed attempts at the exams. The wide variety of appearances was slightly softened by the fact that the genin participants were seemingly clumped up by nation. Turning over to the Hidden Sand side, Kame felt a rush of mixed emotions as he recognized one of the teams: Tetsute, Rakuyo, and Genji were leaning against the wall, the former looking at him with derision. There were two more teams from the sand, but they were composed of older generation genin that Kame didn't know at all.

"Hey, Miriki!" _Oh, no, please…_ Keikiro was smiling and waving from the center of the room, sitting next to her teammates Gunaji and Sagino. _So the Valley sent their genin like Deihaka said they would._ Rather than watch Miriki slide over and flirt with her, Kame scanned the rest of the room briefly, looking for clan crests that he could recognize. There were seemingly only minor ones that he didn't know, until his eyes made it to the corner of the room with the Leaf shinobi.

Standing in a group of three were genin bearing the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Senju clan crests. _That's… all three, on one team!?_ Kame tried not to stare, but the Uchiha noticed his glance and turned to face him with a cold expression. She was maybe a little shorter than he was, clad in red kunoichi wear and with long, dark hair and eyes. _Is this the heir to the Leaf's most infamous clan?_

Their silent staring contest broke down when a door at the other end of the room slammed open just as the door on the near side slammed shut. In the doorway stood a tired-looking man wearing what looked like Leaf jonin's uniform, if Kame remembered correctly. He took in the room, eyes lingering briefly on the Uchiha's squad, and then drawled out in a lazy voice, "Okay, applicants, it's time for the written exam. Come on in here and take the seat with your number, and then I can explain how it'll work."

He stepped aside to reveal what looked like a massive classroom, with several long rows of desks and chairs all facing a front blackboard. Lines of ninja wearing Leaf chunin clothing spread across the left and right walls, each of which held a clipboard. The various genin shuffled through the door, and Kame watched Haku and Miriki take their seats, finding himself the one with his number, 99, on it. It was in the far left and back in the corner. After everyone had found their spots, the man continued. "My name is Shikadai Nara, and I'll be your written exam administrator. If you'd all look in the drawers of your desks, there's a packet of paper and a pen. Please take them out." _Huh, so this is the son of Lady Temari. He does not look like her at all…_

Kame reached into the drawer and did as he'd been told, placing the sheet of paper and pen onto the desk in front of him. An immediate scan of the paper before him revealed it to be a written test; exactly what he'd expected. _Wow, this is… literally_ exactly _what I expected_. The packets of five sheets of paper had twenty questions per page, totaling out to an even one hundred questions, evenly split between calculations, ninjutsu knowledge, and ninja history. _Huh, I somehow thought the chunin exams would be more… I don't know, surprising?_

Shikadai let out another long sigh, bringing the genins' eyes back over to him. "Okay, genin, you may begin the test. However, the people along the walls _will_ be monitoring you, and after they catch you cheating for the second time, you will be disqualified from the exam, along with your team." Kame considered that, but looking back down at the test he could probably do it all without cheating. Since he was in a back row, raised above most of the class, he was safe from people copying his answers.

 _Okay then, let's do this. Question one: Name all five sitting Kage during the Fourth Shinobi World War._ That one was easy: The fourth Raikage, A, the fifth Kazekage, Gaara, the fifth Hokage, Tsunade, the third Tsuchikage, Onoki, and the fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi. _Haku and Miri- I mean, Haku at least can probably get that one._ Kame could vividly remember Miriki spending most of the history lessons explaining to one female classmate or another why he was a hundred times more attractive than any Kage, past or present.

The next question was about jutsu. ' _Fill out the following table of combined-nature-transformation kekkeigenkai.'_ Kame narrowed his eyes, thinking for a brief moment before quickly filling out the table, which had five columns and five rows to represent every possible combination of two basic elements. _Magnet, Lava, Mud, Explosion, Scorch, Ice, Gravity, Boil, Spark, and Storm_ , he listed off, a little bit off-put by the difficulty level. _Is this really all that it takes? Chunin aren't held to that high of an intellectual standard, huh..._

The rest of the test was admittedly harder, but none of the questions pushed him anywhere outside of his comfort zone. When he finished, a quick glance at the clock told him that it had taken him all of forty-five minutes. _How long am I going to be waiting here?_ Kame wondered. _Maybe if I'm done anyway, I may as well see how the rest of the squads are doing._

When he looked around, he saw that many of the other contestants were still bent down over the desks in concentration. Little grunts of annoyance or noises of confusion revealed that people were in fact having trouble with the tests. Kame made sure not to accidentally look at the others' papers, as he didn't want to get penalized for cheating despite not needing to cheat in the first place. _This situation was made to force people to either have decently high intelligence and answer all of the questions right, or great ingenuity and cheat without getting caught_.

An older chunin in the second row bobbed his head to the side for the second time since Kame'd started watching him, and it must have been one too many for the chunin watching him as well. The watcher pointed at him and barked, "Applicant thirteen! Disqualified!" Before the man could protest, another two numbers were shouted. "Applicants fourteen and fifteen! Also disqualified! All of you leave, now."

The man seemed to look around in desperation, but had no choice but to walk out of the room, followed by two clearly disappointed teammates. _That's not going to be me,_ thought Kame. _But- Haku and Miriki, can they pass this test? I think Haku could probably get all of the ninja history questions, but Miriki I don't know about. The calculations were… I mean, I could deal with them, but those weren't taught at the academy, so I doubt they're going to get it. That leaves the jutsu section… Haku hasn't ever used a jutsu, and there's questions about chakra movement theory. She's probably in over her head._

Kame considered the situation and spared a glance at Haku's back. She was bent over her paper, focused on it, but not writing anything, which was a bad sign. He thought about what to do. _If she fails this test, then we'll be at a disadvantage for the rest of the tournament- no, wait, if the applicants get caught cheating, then their whole team gets disqualified. That implies that they need full teams later in the exams, so it's possible that me and Miriki will get flunked if she fails._

He thought and thought, and finally remembered the rules of the exam. Applicants could only be punished if they were caught cheating _twice_. With that in mind, he grabbed a paper bomb from his pocket, copied his answers onto the back of it, and balled it up. _It all comes down to this,_ he thought, a smile creeping onto his face at the absurdity of the situation. _Our chunin exam results resting on one throw of a piece of paper_. Calming his mind, he settled himself, took aim, and then threw.

The paper ball flew in an arc across the classroom and landed on the table in front of Haku, exactly where he'd aimed it. Haku leaped a little bit in her seat before bending forward to check what it was, unfolding it and seeing the writing on it, as well as his brief explanation. She whipped around to look at him and he waved at her, before leaning back nonchalantly. She then turned back to the tests and began writing again.

Kame's smile widened as he saw the chunin sentinel nearest to him narrowing their eyes. He'd clearly and intentionally cheated, but they couldn't punish him because it was the first time. Now Haku was definitely going to pass, leaving Miriki the only unsure variable in the equation. When he turned back to the class, it seemed that nobody had noticed his little stunt. A few confused glances were tossed his way, but the other genin for the most part seemed to write it off as something unimportant.

Quite a few minutes and four more disqualified squads later, Shikadai stood back up at the front of the class and cleared his throat. What little writing still happening stopped, and he spoke. "Alright, genin,there's another rule that I haven't explained yet, so listen up. To pass this exam, you have to have answered eighty or more of the hundred questions right." A wave of mutters and gasps spread through the classroom. "Now, there's two ways for you to submit your tests. First, you can turn it in as normal, get your personal grade, and pass or fail off of that. If you want to do this, you will mark the top of your paper with a 'one'."

 _Then what's the other option?_ "The other method is to share with your teammates. If you mark your paper with a 'two' then your score will be divided by three and then added to a cumulative team score for all of the people who wrote 'two's. If all three of you choose to do so, then the resulting team score will be a perfect average of your scores. However, if one of you opts out, then it's impossible to pass, so choose your course very carefully."

 _Crap,_ Kame thought. _With that math, assuming me and by extension Haku both got perfect scores, and we were to average the team's scores, then we still fail if Miriki got sixty or more questions wrong. Besides, there's no guarantee that both of them will choose to average our scores. Miriki might be too proud…_ "Pass up your tests, now."

 _Time's up,_ thought Kame. _I'm afraid this might be a bad choice, but… so far we've been pushed to do things as a team, so…_ He marked the paper with a 'two' and passed it to the chunin walking up their column. When all the papers had been taken, he noticed Miriki glancing at him with the star-pupiled eyes, smirking. Shikadai turned to the class and nodded. "Congratulations on making it this far. You're all either intelligent, cunnin, or brave- but all of those things can only carry you so far. Remain here while we grade your tests."

The proctor disappeared into a door at the front of the room, followed by most of the chunin. A few remained behind, though, and their presence dampened spirits enough to keep the classroom silent. Seconds dragged on into minutes, Kame growing more and more nervous with each tick of the clock's hands, looking around at the other students who had varying expressions on their faces. The genin ranged from serene to terrified to smirking like Miriki, and Kame couldn't get a good read on the few whose expressions betrayed nothing at all.

Finally, the door opened again, and Shikadai walked back in with a single piece of paper in his hands. Turning to face the class once again, he looked at the sheet and then at the applicants. "The following participants had insufficient scores, either due to wrong answers or incomplete participation in the shared score. Applicants one, two, four, eight, nine, thirteen…" He kept going, dismissing a good half of the remaining genin, who sullenly stood and exited when their numbers were called.

Shikadai finally smiled, a full smile that reminded Kame a little bit too much of Naziru's expression when she thought about torturing him. "And the following applicants received satisfactory scores, but wrote ones on their papers. Numbers three, five, six, fourteen…" Shikadai finished up with the long list of people, smile still present. "You all fail. Leave the room to catch up with your squadmates." A general uproar was silenced immediately by the smile turning to a glare, and his voice losing its boredom to transform to an authoritative bark. "All of you put your personal success before the squad and failed to believe in your squadmates, which chunin simply do not do. I told you that intelligence would only carry you so far, and it's true- in the ninja world, you will need to believe in your squad and vice versa. Get out of my sight, now."

Another huge swath of people stomped out, leaving the room with only maybe thirty genin. Kame saw Miriki and Haku still present, the stress momentarily clearing as he realized they they'd all passed the written exam. As the last failed contestant left the room, the doors were slammed shut and Shikadai's smile came back. "As for the rest of you, you all pass! Congratulations, you thirty genin are now one step closer to becoming chunin, which is more than I can say for sixty-nine of your peers."

 _Yes!_ Kame let himself grin, elated at the knowledge that team eight had survived a third of the exams. Others shouted, fist-pumped, or simply laid back in relief, and Shikadai stood silently while the hubbub winded down. Eventually, the room was quiet enough for him to finish his speech. "You ten teams will now proceed out this door," he said, pointing towards an exit at the front right of the room, "and go straight down the steps. Once you reach the door to the outside courtyard, go through it, and you'll be given a half-hour to eat, talk, or do whatever you have to in preparation for stage two of your chunin exam. Good luck."

Everyone seemed to take their cue and move forward, filing through the door in no particular order. As the furthest one from the door, Kame ended up as the last in the line and by the time he made it down the stairs and out the door at the end, most of the other genin had already spread out and found their teammates. His own teammates walked up to him, equally huge smiles on their faces, but Haku spoke first. "We did it!"

Kame smiled back at her. "Yeah, we did…"

Miriki continued smiling, but it his expression turned right past Kame to settle on something across the courtyard. He nodded at the other two team eight members and said distractedly, "Yeah, woohoo, great job team! Can you excuse me for just one moment?" Without even waiting for a response he walked off towards whatever had captured his attentions.

Kame rolled his eyes, rotating around to check out who Miriki had set his sights on _this_ time, but his nonchalance about it evaporated instantly once he saw who it was. _Miriki is… he's… that's…_ Kame sprinted towards him but didn't make it in time, and was only able to watch as his teammate approached the Uchiha heir.

"Hey there, gorgeous." The girl turned to look at him without any emotion showing. "You can turn off your Sexy Jutsu now."

"What?" She was staring at him like scum from the bottom of her shoe.

He feigned surprise. "What? You mean you _aren't_ using illusory jutsu to look that attractive?" She narrowed her eyes, but he was either oblivious or still hopeful. "Then you can at least apologize for using Tsukoyomi on me; I just lost three whole days staring into your eyes."

One of the girl's teammates, a slightly smaller-than-average boy wearing a white shirt and pants, grabbed her arm. "Naruko, ignore this creep, let's-" She threw off his arm, knocking him back a little bit and giving Kame a good look at his face. He had the pale white eyes that suggested a Hyuga heritage, short, straight brown hair, and an expression of anxiety.

"Shut up, Sureki, this guy's annoying me. And you," she said, turning to Miriki, "Hop off, pervert." She wore an expression of extreme distaste as she turned her gaze once more, from Miriki to Kame. "Is this your teammate? He was staring at me earlier, too. If you have something to say, then say it."

Kame shook his head. "I didn't mean any insult; I've just read a lot about your clan and-"

She turned away from him, apparently deciding the conversation was over. Shrugging, Kame turned around to walk back to where Haku was, dragging Miriki along with him. "Miriki, dude, you have to learn when- or, _who_ , I guess- not to hit on. Powerful clan heir that you barely know? Bad idea."

Miriki sighed. "The secret to success with woman is to never know when to quit. I wouldn't expect someone like you who's never even been on a date to get that, but just leave me to my art, would you?"

 _Well, that's pretty creepy,_ thought Kame. When they reached Haku, he let go of Miriki and sat down with legs crossed. Reaching into his pack, he found the food he'd packed that morning and pulled it out, then in between bites he considered the other squads in the courtyard. Tetsute's squad had passed, but besides them and team eight no other Hidden Sand teams were present. There were two Leaf teams, a group of maybe third or fourth year genin and the Uchiha's group. Two teams from the Cloud, two teams from the Stone, and one team from the Mist brought the count up to nine, leaving the last team being… _Oh, there they are,_ Kame thought as he looked to a back corner of the courtyard and recognized the Valley genin that they knew.

Keikiro seemed to recognize them at the same time, because she squealed and darted over. "Hey, guys, how's it going? That test was really something, huh? I knew that I had to trust my teammates, though, I mean, what's the point of having a squad if you're not gonna trust them with things?"

Miriki brightened up. "You can trust _me_ with things, Keikiro." A casual smirk split his face, already having recovered from the awkwardness with Naruko. "Maybe I could trust you?" Keikiro blushed a little bit and turned away. "How about we trust each other to come to a victory dinner tonight?" She nodded furiously.

 _Well, we have to pass now,_ thought Kame sarcastically. _His date is ruined if we don't._ Sagino and Gunaji walked up, both still eating lunches as they sat down. In between bites, Gunaji asked, "How were the last couple of weeks? Anything big happen?"

Kame shook his head. "Nothing much. We trained a lot, though." A thought occurred to him. "Hey, Gunaji, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

Kame remembered the way he'd fought back during the first mission, by moving around sharpened stones through the air. "Do you use puppet jutsu to move those rocks, or what?"

The Valley genin nodded. "No... I mean, I'm not using chakra threads, if that's what you're asking. It's not something you can learn, it's a kekkegenkai." _His tone makes it sound like he doesn't want to say any more._

Miriki sat straight up. "Oh, yeah! I just remembered what I was going to say to you guys earlier! I never explained my kekkegenkai to you, didn't I?" Kame shook his head, curious now about what it did. "The Hatogan, it's a two-part kekkegenkai that has a visual and dojutsu component. I've unlocked three of the nine aspects." _The star in his eye has three points,_ thought Kame.

"So, anyway, the aspects come at different points for different people, but if they can access it completely, the result is the same. Our clan genjutsu, it isn't like most, where you trap someone inside of a vision within their mind by through one of their five senses. We actually target and change the senses, meaning that the victim can still move and act. However, it's a _lot_ easier to use, and slightly more difficult to break. Five of the nine aspects are the five senses."

"So which ones have you gotten access to, then?" Kame asked, surprised that Miriki had been concealing such a powerful bloodline trait this whole time.

Miriki responded with surprising hesitance. "Uhh… the thing is… Okay, so I can hit two senses."

"And they are?" Kame had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

"Taste and smell," Miriki muttered.

 _Taste and smell. Well, that's going to be super useful,_ thought Kame bitterly. _Of course he ends up with the two most useless ones._ "Well, I mean… you said that you had _three_ aspects? What's the third one?"

Miriki pointed at his eyes. "I can see people's fears." Then he winced a little bit at what he'd said and shook his head. "I mean, I can't perpetually see everything a person's afraid of, but if they're especially afraid of something at any given point I can sort of just understand it. That's why I was able to know that I should write the two on my test in there, both of you were _terrified_ that I wasn't going to."

 _That's a lot more useful,_ Kame thought. _Wait, that explains how he's known exactly what to say to me and Haku whenever we've gotten nervous over the last couple of weeks.._. Kame finished his food and put the packaging back into his bag, seeing Haku had already done the same. Gunaji ended up being the one who responded to Miriki's explanation: "Are you sure you want us to hear you explain all this? We _are_ shinobi from another village…"

Miriki shrugged. "I mean, you haven't given me any reason to hide things from you, and the Valley hasn't ever been an enemy to the Sand, so…" His eyes drifted over to Keikiro. "Besides, me and Keikiro just had a very important conversation about trust." The look they gave each other after that line made Kame roll his eyes and look away.

When he turned back around, there were three more genin standing next to their group of six. A light-skinned and wide-smiling shinobi was out front, waving at them despite being literally two feet away. "Hey, guys, what's going on over here?" His voice was nearly as absurdly happy as Keikiro's.

Keikiro must have recognized her kindred spirit, because she was the one who replied. "Oh, nothing much, we're just hanging out. Want to join? Where are you from; are you Hidden Cloud genin?" _I mean, they're all three wearing Cloud headbands and a lot of_ _white_ , Kame thought sarcastically, _so they're either Cloud ninja or people who killed and impersonated Cloud ninja._

The happy one nodded enthusiastically. "Soon to be Hidden Cloud chunin, actually!"

Another member of his squad sighed. This one was another boy, with much darker skin, as well as dark brown hair and eyes, taller than normal and built with a lot of muscle. When he spoke, it was in a voice that seemed far too deep for his age. "Think you're calling that a little soon, Kosu?"

'Kosu' spun around to insult his teammate, "Ah, you're just a downer." Then he spun again, facing back towards their little group. "He's just a downer, don't mind him. My name is Kosu Iburi, Mr. Grumpy is Dako Nakimoka, and the quiet one is Zandeina Ryukana." The third Cloud ninja, Zandeina, was a kunoichi clad in a long cloak, hood pulled over her head and blocking most of her face.

Kame thought that he should probably return the courtesy of introduction. "My name is Kame Hakiara, this is Miriki Kosuki to my left, and on my right is Haku. We're all Hidden Sand genin."

Keikiro introduced her whole squad as well, and then the Cloud shinobi sat down and they broke down into casual conversation. After a few minutes of silence, Kame decided he should probably participate in the talking, which was how he found himself speaking with the imposing Dako. "What's the Hidden Cloud like?" _Ouch, that was awkward._

Dako spared him a glance that clearly said, _Really?_ "What kind of question is that? It's a village, where I live and work. It's in the mountains."

 _I didn't train myself in conversation-making, okay?_ To his surprise, Kame's silent wish for the conversation to be over was actually granted by a man suddenly appearing in the middle of the courtyard. _What!? Is that...? No, it can't be, he's way too young._ The man, seemingly somewhere around his mid-to-late thirties, stood up with perfect posture, wearing a green jumpsuit and two orange leg-warmers. Not only his outfit, but also his bowl cut and huge eyebrows all matched the pictures and descriptions that Kame had read of Rock Lee.

The Rock Lee lookalike opened his mouth and called out to the assembled genin. "Greetings! I am Metal Lee, your instructor for… for the…" He trailed off, shuddering a little bit, looking around at all the people surrounding him. "I will lead you in… the second part of the chunin exams." _What's wrong with this guy?_ Kame was perplexed by the man's actions. He'd started out confident, but now he was uttering stilted sentences and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. _Does he have... stage fright?_

"Come on, Lee-sensei!" The Senju genin shouted words of encouragement, which seemed to finally snap Metal Lee out of it.

"Yes. Yes! I will take you to the place of testing! Follow me!" Metal Lee turned around and marched off, leaving all of the genin to scramble around trying to pack up. He was already nearly thirty feet away by the time participants started off after him, sprinting to catch up. Kame, having already packed up his food, waited for Miriki to clean up and then led his two squadmates on into their next challenge.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Cloud):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Genin Evaluation Data: Kosu Iburi**

Ninjutsu: B  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Passable grasp of basic jutsu and Lightning Release._

Genjutsu: B  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Noteworthy level of skill with illusory techniques, competent at dispelling._

Taijutsu: C  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Inferior strength, technique, and durability, but clan techniques technically compensate his weakness._

Appearance: _Age sixteen. Average height (5'8"), very thin build, pale, freckled skin, mid-length light blonde hair and pale blue eyes. Typically wears casual civilian clothing beneath requisite Cloud genin vest and headband._

Attitude: _Extremely sociable and friendly, long record of working well with a variety of other students and genin. Does not seem to have an excess of respect for instructors but follows orders to the letter._

History: _Born to a mother (Yukimi Iburi) who was a first-generation Cloud shinobi immigrant after a past with_ [Redacted] _. Several loyalty checks have verified the veracity of his mother's commitment to the Cloud; father is an active Cloud jonin. Joined Shinobi Academy a year late, passed with unremarkable scores but surprising popularity amongst classmates. Was specially placed on a team with another socially amiable genin (Dako Nakimoka) and a problematic one (Zandeina Ryukana), after which no issues ensued for a full year as a squad._


	12. Old Friends

After exiting the courtyard out into the woods surrounding the Leaf and walking at least a couple of kilometers, Metal Lee finally stopped in front of a mountain well outside the village. He whirled around, hands on his hips, and pointed at the mountain behind him. "This is the second stage of the chunin exam!"

 _What?_ Kame really wished that people in charge of him would be more clear with their instructions. Evidently the proctor realized his error, because he hastily tried again. "The second stage of the chunin exam will take place on this mountain!"

 _Okay, better,_ thought Kame. However, as seconds ticked by, an awkward cough sealed in the realization that Metal Lee was finished talking. "Umm, Lee-sensei?" Again, the Senju genin seemed to steer Metal in the right direction.

"Ah, yes, my apologies. For the second part of the chunin exams, there are exactly thirty special tokens scattered about on the summit of this mountain. It will be your job to climb to the top and secure them! Re-entering the courtyard with tokens will end the test for you and your team's score will be equal to the number of tokens you managed to collect." _Okay, so it's a race with a tactical element thrown in_ , Kame considered. _He said that entering the courtyard ends the test, which means that on the way back the test is still going._

Sagino raised a hand and Lee nodded at her. "So, what's the minimum score required to pass? Do we have to defend ourselves from the other participants?"

Metal immediately responded. "There is no minimum score! Once all teams have finished, or after forty-eight hours, the five highest scoring teams will be admitted into the finals." _F_ _orty-eight hours? There's no way that the mountain could take that long to climb._ "As for the rules surrounding attacking the other participants… you are free to use whatever weapons and jutsu you are able to. However, you should aim to incapacitate rather than kill, as unnecessarily severely injuring or killing another participant may be punished, possibly even with a lifetime ban from taking the exams again in extreme cases!"

Kame nodded, trying not to focus on the fact that he'd brought up killing as a possible and even predictable outcome. Looking around at the other participants, none of them looked like murderers… _Haku's a murderer,_ some nasty voice in his head reminded him.

 _It's different, she was on a job and the guy was trying to kill people,_ he justified back.

Metal Lee then pointed to the sides. "The fence around this mountain has several gateways, all of which are monitored and controlled remotely. They are numbered starting with the one behind me, number one, through number ten to my left." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, reading off of it. "When the gates open, you are free to go. Now, applicants ninety-seven, ninety-eight, and ninety-nine, you will remain here. Applicants forty, forty-one, and forty-two, go to gate two…" As he numbered off the gates, Kame took careful note and assembled a mental map of the teams, starting with team eight at position one.

The Leaf squads were adjacent in positions nine and ten, meaning that they'd be starting close to team eight. To the right was the sole Mist team, and then in counterclockwise order were older teams from the Cloud and Stone, then the Cloud team that they'd spoken to, another Stone team, Tetsute's team, and the Valley team. Kame yanked his backpack off and removed all of Wasp's parts, assembling it as rapidly as he could.

While he was concentrated on his task, a loud voice crackled to life through the overhead intercom. "Greetings, genin! It is I, Metal Lee, still your instructor! The entirety of the training ground is monitored, so we can watch and understand your performance. However, we will _only_ step in if there is a situation that could threaten a participant's life or permanent injury."

Kame finished the last leg of Wasp and made the chakra thread, lifting it from the ground. He'd had a couple of chances to practice during the journey to the Leaf, and he had to admit that Kankuro had been right. The smaller puppet was significantly easier to use and would actually be a great asset in any fights they had. Haku, noticing that he was done, spoke up. "Kame, how are we going to play this? Do we just rush straight to the top, or should we try to steal the tokens from other teams?"

Kame thought about it for a second. _Metal Lee didn't explain what the tokens were going to be, did he? That means that they could be something incredibly easy or incredibly difficult to steal. We can't put all of our eggs in the stealing basket._ He glanced at Haku, and then at Miriki, considering the situation. _But I don't know if we can win a race, either. Miriki isn't very fast, and if we leave at the same time as the other teams, we'll probably get there after them. That means we'll have to walk into a trap._

 _Wait- if all of the teams are heading to the top at their different speeds, then nobody can set a trap! They'd have to defend from all angles, sorely outnumbered._ Kame turned to face his teammates. "We're just gonna go straight for the top, but slow down once we get close and make sure that we know what we're walking into…"

Haku nodded, but Miriki raised an eyebrow. "So we're just going straight into the war zone? Who made you leader, huh?" _Oh my god, now is not the time for a power struggle, Miriki._

Haku, completely straight-facedly, said, "Let's put it to a vote."

Miriki looked at her, then at Kame, and then back again, and rolled his eyes. "Fine, let's go with Kame's plan."

Kame nodded, grateful for Haku's support. "Okay then, if we do run into another team, let's talk about what to do. I think we should immediately back off and formulate a plan of attack or retreat. If they get the drop on us, we have to scatter, in which case we would need to meet back up. Let's say our meeting point is… back here?" The other two nodded. "Good. In fights, what we do is going to change drastically depending on the abilities of our enemies, but in general I feel like our job should be keeping them on their heels and unfocused until Haku can close in to beat them in melee."

They both nodded, and Haku opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment, the gate opened and a loud buzzer sounded out over the intercom. The three of them immediately nodded to each other and charged off into the forest, but remained on the ground. As much as Kame had heard and read about ninja using the branches to leap through the woods, he hadn't had much of an opportunity to practice it, having grown up in a desert. He could attempt it for the first time, but that seemed like a terrible idea- _The middle of the chunin exams, surrounded by enemy teams, is not the best place to learn new things._

Then he remembered something and snorted. Without breaking pace, Haku turned slightly to look at him. "Kame? What is it, what's so funny?"

"It's just…" Kame rolled his eyes. "Deihaka entered us in this exam in the first place as a 'learning experience'..." Haku giggled a little bit and Miriki cracked a smile. _Learning experience my ass._ Not for the first time, Kame thought about their sensei's inexperience. _Why did he agree to take on a team of genin, anyway? He's a very new jonin, and he clearly doesn't enjoy or have any talent for teaching._

They reached the base of the mountain and began making their way up through treacherous rocks, finding a path by hopping or climbing from ledge to ledge. Wasp still hovered right around Kame's head, and he made sure to keep it ready to intercept an attack if necessary. It was no Salamander and would probably break under any serious damage, but a broken puppet was better than disqualification or injury.

They scaled the mountain even faster than he'd thought they would. After only maybe twenty minutes, they'd already neared the top of it. _Why would we need forty-eight hours for this?_ He heard the sounds of battle from ahead and raised a hand to indicate that they should slow down, then crept forward very carefully, readying a Gale Force Jutsu just in case he'd need a hasty escape.

He finally peeked his head around a rock to see the flattened top of the mountain, on which a small battle was taking place. From what he could gather, it looked like the two Stone teams had reached the tokens first and were trying to defend them, obviously not having thought through how that was going to end up. Both Cloud teams and the Mist team were surrounding and trading attacks and jutsu with them, gradually wearing them down.

 _Okay,_ Kame considered, _how are we going to play this? If we wait for the Cloud and Mist to win, then they might take all of the tokens._ Looking more carefully, he noticed that the stone clearing had a pile of metal bars in the middle, cylinders perhaps six inches long and one inch wide. _Nevermind, they'll never be able to carry that much. Doing the math, as long as we take…_ He thought about it for a moment. Thirty total tokens divided by five winning teams would equal six, leaving twenty-four to be taken by the others. Even if those twenty-four _were_ split evenly among four other teams, those four teams would equal team eight in score. _In that case, we need to take six of them to guarantee ourselves a spot in the top five._

At that moment, he saw Tetsute's team emerge and attack the Mist team from behind. _Okay, now the battle's even, so we should…_ Kame was very unsure of what to do; any action could end up in their team being attacked and knocked out. _Maybe we could attack all of them? No, that would make enemies out of everyone else and put us at a huge disadvantage._ A thought occurred to him, suddenly, and he decided to risk it.

"Miriki, I need you to create some form of a distraction for the Stone ninja guarding the tokens when I tell you to, understood?" The Stone genin in question was standing beside the pile of tokens and flinging barrages of earth at the Cloud ninja, forcing them to duck behind cover. Miriki nodded assent, and Kame put his plan into action.

He breathed deeply and then cast the Wind Barrier Jutsu- but not on himself. Instead, he centered it on Wasp, which was difficult but not impossible given the way his chakra was connected to it through the thread. A miniature tornado swirled to life around it, but something was wrong- _Crap, the wings!_ He swore mentally as the tornado's intense winds simply tore off the stabilizers. Although Wasp would still be able to move as normal, it would be a lot more difficult to keep it under control.

Without any other real option, Kame just had to press on. He willed through the chakra thread and moved it forward as fast as he could, sending the tiny construct whizzing forward through the fight. Although a lot of the stray kunai and dust were knocked away by the defensive jutsu, Kame still had to dodge quite a few larger attacks. A huge boulder nearly crushed Wasp and his last-second dodge flipped it over, forcing him to concentrate harder and _just barely_ manage to flip it back. Through gritted teeth he grunted, "Now, Miriki!"

Through the corner of his eye, he saw Miriki smiling _way_ too mischievously and even laughing briefly. "Thought you'd never ask." The Sand genin's pupil stretched in three directions and spun briefly into its Hatogan state, his smile growing slightly more strained with concentration. Wasp was nearing the pile, and the Stone guard seemed to notice something, but as he started to turn, suddenly he doubled over and began coughing. Although he was far away and the battle was loud, Kame could catch a few scattered words: "Disgusting", "The hell?", and "Poison".

With the Stone ninja so distracted, Wasp was free to land atop the pile. Kame narrowed his eyes to try and see how many he was grabbing, but it was very difficult. When he closed the four legs inward, it looked to be around six of the tokens, but the Stone ninja suddenly straightened up and stared at the small puppet taking away his prize and roared. _Well, time's up,_ thought Kame. He focused completely on Wasp and willed it to come flying towards him, tearing over at breakneck speed. With the added weight, the quick dodges he'd executed earlier were out of the question, so his only option was to hope that he could make up for it with pure speed.

Luck seemed to be on his side, as Wasp cleared the battle and swung around the boulder that concealed their team. To Kame's chagrin, though, when he released the legs he found not six but five of the little metal things sitting before him. _That doesn't guarantee our win… do we leave now and hope that one team takes way more than the others, or go back for another one?_ It wouldn't be right to just leave the others out of it, so he turned to face them. "Haku, Miriki, I took one too few of these things." He let the shame he felt escape to his face. "So, if we leave now, there's no guarantee that we'll end up in the top five teams. One more of them will guarantee us a spot, so… do you two want to risk it?"

Miriki frowned. "My genjutsu won't work on that guy again, you realize? The way to break it is to do something that contradicts the new sensation. Genjutsu release doesn't work because instead of clouding their chakra points, I _use_ them to lie to their brain about what they're feeling. That guy must have figured out that the crap I put in his taste buds wasn't real and swallowed, which removed the effect. Now he's wary of it and I can't hit him again so soon, especially since that genjutsu eats up about one-third of my chakra."

 _Wait, so changing someone's taste alone eats up that much chakra!?_ Kame had started to regain faith in his teammate, but it was dashed by that last statement. Haku chimed in her opinion, "If you two can cover me, I'm pretty sure I can take out the guard and get out of there with a token."

Kame shook his head. "There's too many mixed jutsu flying around out there, actually running into it is a death sentence. I like that plan, but we need to wait for the situation to change first. I'll tell you guys when I think Haku should engage, okay?" They agreed, and Kame settled in to scan the battle for any opening.

Tetsute's squad was just finishing off the Mist squad. Their surprise attack had been highly effective, and Tetsute's pride-and-joy quicksand jutsu incapacitated them long enough for Rakuyo to knock them out. One of the mist ninja survived the initial combo, but Genji was on him and took his down as well with a Wind Blade Jutsu. Meanwhile, the Cloud and Stone teams that had been previously trading even were now losing members rapidly. Miriki's genjutsu had distracted the stone-thrower long enough for a cloud ninja to get on him with a kunai, smashing the side of his head (with the hilt, thankfully) and putting him out cold. The Stone ninja's comrade responded with an attack using a huge boulder encased over his fist, knocking the Cloud ninja flying.

Suddenly, Zandeina leaped forward from the cover and held out her hands, shouting, "Storm Style: Crackling Doom!" Bright blue lightning leapt from her hands and streamed into three of the Stone shinobi, electrocuting them almost instantly and dropping their bodies to the floor. _Did she… kill them?_ Kame remembered the proctor warning them against excessive violence, but his worries were stopped when one of the Cloud kunoichi's victims stirred and groaned a little bit.

The two remaining Stone shinobi swore and bolted, one of them grabbing their fallen comrade. That meant that, with three members down, one entire Stone team had been taken out. The surviving team was down a member, but probably had the requisite six tokens somewhere with them. Kame briefly toyed with the idea of hunting them down, but Zandeina already seemed to be doing it, charging off after them. Kosu and Dako both took off as well, leaving Tetsute's squad and the crippled Cloud squad as the only two left in the clearing.

Kame decided now was as good as it was going to get, standing and hurling a concussive paper airplane at the center of the clearing. "Haku! Go!"

He detonated the plane, blasting a wave of force out from just above the pile of metal and knocking everything around it back. Haku bolted forward and snatched a token before turning and sprinting back towards them, barely more than a blur as she ate up the distance in seconds. Tetsute shouted angrily and threw a couple of kunai, but she'd already cleared the danger area. Kame slung the backpack with the tokens inside of it over his shoulder, darting off back down the mountain along with Haku and Miriki.

 _Okay, now we just have to make it back to the courtyard with these._ Kame considered the teams that hadn't been present at the battle atop the clearing- the Leaf teams and the Valley team. They were probably waiting with traps, taking the tactic of simply stealing other teams' tokens rather than getting any for themselves. A shout from behind them took him out of his contemplation and he turned around in horror to see Tetsute leading Rakuyo and Genji back down the mountain- _Those assholes are gonna chase us down, huh?_

He turned Wasp around and triggered the weapon in its mouth, launching a volley of needles at their pursuers. _That should slow them down, but at some point we'll have to fight them. I'd rather not do it on the mountain, and the terrain should keep us about even on speed, but as soon as we hit solid ground we're too weighed down to outrun them._ "Haku, Miriki," he said, trying to keep his voice down so the other Sand squad wouldn't be able to hear him, "When we hit solid ground we have to turn on them, understood?"

They nodded, and the chase continued on in much the same way for minutes, both teams trading projectile attacks but nothing serious, too focused on keeping their footing on the uneven and rocky mountain surface. The mountain itself seemed unnatural, with far too many loose boulders scattered about its surface, especially as they approached ground level. Finally, Kame saw the forest floor ahead of him and dropped two paperbombs on the boulders beneath his feet before leaping down to it and turning to face his rivals: "Yo, Tetsute, jealous much? Don't you have something better to do than run us down? Or was I right the other night about how insecure you are?"

Miriki and Haku both glanced at him, as he'd never told them about his less-than-kind parting words with the bullies he'd once called friends. He resolved to explain it to them later, but for the time being he had to focus on the battle. Tetuse stopped on a boulder a good thirty feet up the mountain, sneering at team eight arrayed below him. "Come on, Kame, you've got to do better than that for trash talk. Plus, that was a weak plan; did you honestly think I was gonna miss those paperbombs you dropped?"

Kame shrugged, but Miriki stepped forward and replied for him. "Sorry, we just didn't want to make it too much of a slaughter. If we went all-out on you right from the start, it'd make us look bad."

Tetsute snickered. "All out? Please, Loverboy, it's you and the cripple-" he nodded towards Haku- "That _I'm_ going easy on. You can't handle me going all-out." Miriki laughed, and Tetsute's eyes narrowed. "What is it? Is something funny?"

"Well, it's just… 'You can't handle me going all-out' was what I said to your mom a couple nights ago." Miriki's smirk grew wider, and Genji failed to suppress a snicker. Tetsute shot back a murderous look towards his teammate and turned around to make a comeback, but Miriki wasn't done. "Of course, your sister- she _was_ able to handle me going all-out, so go figure." Tetsute's sister wasn't a shinobi, as far as Kame knew she worked at the family restaurant. "Kinda makes me wonder exactly what kind of service she's giving to your restaurant customers, eh?"

A vein in Tetsute's forehead bulged as his face reddened with rage. He started to yell something, but Miriki just talked over him again. "Anyway, Rakuyo…" He turned to face the team seven kunoichi, shit-eating grin plastered all over his face. "Do you think _you_ could handle me going all-out?" _Oh, no…_ Kame remembered Tetsute's raging crush on the third member of their little group all the way through their time at the academy. "I'm willing to bet no, since Mr. Compensating-For-Something over here seems like all of the dick was put into his personality rather than where it matters."

Genji doubled over laughing, and Tetsute made a strangled noise and sheathed his kunai, whipping his hands forward and putting them together. _Miriki, you pushed him too far,_ thought Kame, even as he yelled for his teammates to dodge. His warning came not a moment too soon as Tetsute made a series of complex seals and then slammed his hands on the earth. Suddenly, a ripple shot forth and upon reaching a point a few feet ahead of Kame, exploded outwards in a wave of earth.

Even as Kame was leaping back, he saw that the area of Tetsute's jutsu was far too large, perhaps twenty meters in radius. The other boy shouted, "Earth Style: Quicksand Sea!" Kame noticed, too late, that his jump wouldn't take him out of the area, and he'd land within it, which was certain death- once the Quicksand Sea Jutsu had you, there was little you could do to escape sinking multiple feet down into it. Rakuyo's specialty was marksmanship, and she'd pick him off with ease.

Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and violently thrown towards the treeline. As he hurtled over to the branches and managed to secure himself just barely, he saw that Haku had intercepted him in midair- but now she was in danger. Miriki, on the other hand, had managed to jump up into an overhanging branch and was hiding himself, using the tree as cover. _Damn it, Haku's in trouble now,_ Kame thought, _She can't reposition herself in midair, which means she's going to hit the sand!_

There was only one thing he could think of, but it was going to be very difficult. If Haku was pinned, though, there was little doubt that she'd be used as a hostage, and he'd never be able to watch them hurt her without giving in to their demands. _Alright, Deihaka-sensei,_ _if you're watching this, wish me luck!_ Kame jumped _down_ off of the branch, readying one of his wind jutsu, and waiting for the exact right moment, cast it in his outstretched hand millimeters before he hit the pool of quicksand. "Wind Style: Gale Force Jutsu!"

The resulting blast of wind knocked him back hard enough that he went flying by the branch he'd just leaped from, a chakra-gripping hand just managing to get him onto it. Since he'd passed Haku on his way down, his jutsu had also flung her away from her impending doom, sending her hurtling off towards the far end of the quicksand. She twisted in the air and managed to grab hold of the branch, using her agility and strength rather than chakra to secure herself.

 _Alright, our turn,_ thought Kame, just as he saw Genji release a jutsu of his own. A sixth sense warned him to duck and saved him from a lot of pain as a blade of wind scythed forward, punching through the leafy branches and crunching a deep crater in the bark of the tree behind where his chest had been. _I guess they're not pulling punches, huh?_

Rakuyo appeared to have chosen Miriki as her opponent, flinging kunai after kunai at him with deadly accuracy. He was pinned behind the trunk of the tree, unable to even poke his head out without a shuriken zipping towards it. _Okay, Kame, think. How can you turn the tables on them?_ Tetsute's jutsu cost him a lot of chakra, but it was a one-off thing. Once the ground was liquefied, it took a couple of hours for it to return to normal, with or without Tetsute focusing on it. Genji used the Hidden Sand's Wind Blade technique, but he was still a novice, so his attacks were more like Wind Clubs. _Not that they're any less deadly at our level._

Kame spun around the trunk to get some cover before starting to formulate a plan, but all of a sudden Haku was standing right in front of him. "So what's the plan?" He winced a little bit at the question, which she noticed. "Oh, okay then… in that case, I… I should warn you that I can't fight Tetsute, he..." she bit her lip with a combination of embarassment and worry. "He, uh, knows a genjutsu that I can't counter."

 _Right_ , Kame thought, _How could I forget_. He must have failed to keep the annoyance from his face, because Haku was apologizing almost immediately- "I'm sorry, I really am. I shouldn't... I should have told you earlier, but I didn't-"

"No." Kame shook his head, and the act seemed to clear away some of his lingering doubts and let him see just how _scared_ Haku looked. _She's afraid I think she's a burden_ , he realized. "It's fine, I'll deal with him. I need you to keep Genji off my back, and maybe Rakuyo if she stops fighting Miriki."

"Understood," Haku said, losing the doubt at least for the moment.

"You can go after him once I engage Tetsute," Kame said, meeting her eyes, "And I _promise_ I'll keep him busy enough that he won't be able to genjutsu you, alright?"

Haku nodded, resuming a more combative stance and waiting for her opportunity.

 _Great_ , Kame said to himself. _Just take care of Tetsute, who I've been even with since we enrolled at the academy. Easier said than done_.

Regardless, this was something he had to do. He drew two kunai and rolled paperbombs around the hilts, hooking them onto his waist, then slapped two attach-type windbombs to his chest and back in case he needed an emergency defense. Since he'd broken his own rib trying that move in his first mission, he'd fine-tuned some windbombs for this specific purpose and decreased the force inflicted on him to manageable levels.

He then ran some chakra through his feet, climbing the tree and hoping that his opponents weren't able to discern his movements. When he emerged to look, his hopes were confirmed; Genji was still watching the middle of the tree despite Kame's position at the top. _Now to end this._ He sent Wasp skirting around the far edge of the fight, keeping it in his own sightlines while outside of his foes' as best he could, until it was some fifty feet above and behind Tetsute's cohort. _You're mine,_ Kame thought, as he gathered some of his remaining chakra and used one of his easier techniques. "Substitution Jutsu!"

Kame appeared a good way up the mountainside, now holding the high ground, and ordered Wasp to fire off a few more needles from where he'd been standing before, which were easily deflected by Tetsute. _Time to finish this,_ he thought, and threw down three weakened-bomb type paper airplanes at the team seven members. Evidently they somehow sensed his attack coming, because Rakuyo whirled around and threw a kunai knife at the one flying towards her. She aimed at the next one, but before she could shoot it out of the sky, her eyes widened and she bent at the waist in a familiar display of extreme disgust. _Nice one, Miriki._

Tetsute, who wasn't as good as Rakuyo at marksmanship, instead chose to dodge. He wasn't a complete idiot, and made sure that his backwards jump cleared Kame's paperbomb trap, but it meant he'd be forced to land dangerously close to his own quicksand.

Meanwhile, Genji sent a slash of wind tearing towards the paperbomb intended for him but _missed_ , leaving an incredulous Kame to simply detonate it once it got close enough to his enemy. A shout of pain cut through the smoke, which cleared quickly to reveal Genji with a scorched shoulder and upper arm, having failed to generate distance in time to fully avoid the blast.

He stood there for about half a second before Haku came flying out from the treeline and swept her leg at his from behind, cleanly knocking him off his feet before grabbing his arm in the same spinning motion and slamming his body directly into the side of a massive boulder with a painful-sounding _thud_.

"Kodoku!" Tetsute shouted with a smugness despite just having lost a team member that snapped Kame's attention right back to him. "I can't believe you were actually stupid enough to show yourself," he started, forming a few handsigns that would spell the genjutsu she'd suffered so many times before, "But I can't complain if it means disqualifying you from riding Kame's back all the way up to chunin-"

He cut off as Kame's kunai whistled right past his hands, which he failed to move fast enough and received a thin cut along his knuckles. His cocky facade cracked, revealing that ever-present rage for just a brief moment, but it was back by the time he turned to face his old comrade. "Kame, bud, let her lose her own battles- god knows she's gonna lose a lot of them."

Kame began to think of the beginnings of a plan, tugging on the thread of chakra still connecting him to Wasp as he formulated a response with as much eloquence as he felt was necessary at the moment: "Shut up."

Tetsute only smirked wider, sensing that his jabs must have landed to piss Kame off. "What, you gonna whine at me for winning a fight against her in the god damn _chunin_ _exams?_ At this point is the entire _world_ just supposed to pretend she isn't crippled?"

"I..."

Tetsute only grew more fervent in his rant. "You can't possibly live in some fantasy world where everybody just chooses to ignore her weakness and she succeeds as a ninja. This is reality, moron, and there are _real_ stakes to missions that shinobi undergo, and to risk disaster for the village just to... what, make her _feel_ better? Stroke your own pity-boner?" He leaned forward, eyes never leaving Kame's. "Or maybe it's just a regular boner. Look, pal, if you really find her that hot-"

Kame sent one of Wasp's legs flying directly towards the back of Tetsute's head. He heard or sensed it somehow at the last second, tilting his neck to the side to cleanly avoid being hurt, but another of Kame's kunai was already en route towards him to follow up, forcing him to duck.

Tetsute turned the ducking motion to his own advantage, slamming a hand into the boulder beneath his feet after making a few simple signs: "Earth Style: Crumble!"

The boulder disintegrated, dropping him down lower into the resulting pile of sand. Kame ordered Wasp to fire off another barrage of needles, but Tetsute didn't even bother turning, merely uttering "Earth Style: Sandstone Wall," which brought a wall of sand compressing back into solidity behind him.

Kame suddenly noticed motion to the side of him and saw Rakuyo launching a few kunai in succession, each one flying with speed and accuracy that might have ended someone less prepared than he. However, after spending over a year at the academy and outside of it practicing with her, he knew the tricks she'd use and didn't allow the first kunai to force him to dodge into the path of the second and third, instead taking a tougher sidestep and receiving a shallow slash to his thigh for his trouble. _Better than a severed tendon_ , he considered.

Before another volley could come, Haku vaulted over Tetsute's sunken position and landed with a fist slammed into Rakuyo's boulder, cracking the stone and forcing her to dodge backwards as her footholds fell apart. Out of the corner of his eye, Kame noticed Tetsute sneakily making the genjutsu signs once more and sent Wasp skyward, launching another barrage of needles straight down this time. Tetsute was forced to abandon his jutsu and cast another wall, this one angled back above him.

Kame had to give up following the Haku and Rakuyo confrontation as he turned all his attention towards Tetsute. _My advantages are my ability to outflank him with Wasp_ , he listed off, _My destructive power, the lack of chakra I've spent so far, and the high ground-_

"Shit!" he blurted, feeling the ground beneath his feet start to give out. While he'd been thinking, Tetsute had already launched into another jutsu.

"Earth Style: Crumble!" The earth and stone all the way up the hill past where Kame was standing shifted slightly, letting out a puff of dust and sand, and then _all_ began to fall apart into smaller and smaller fragments, tumbling back down towards Kame.

He concentrated chakra, managing to prep the jutsu just in time to avoid being caught in the landslide and likely grievously injured: "Wind Style: Gale Force Jutsu!" The force catapulted him skyward, away from the deadly river of silt and sand flowing down and around Tetsute. From his high vantage point, he could see just how far-reaching his foe's jutsu had been- it stretched nearly twenty meters up the side of the mountain, and was ten meters wide at the base. _Holy shit, has he always been this powerful?_

"Earth Style: Sandstone Spear!" Kame's eyes flickered down to see a meter-long spear of stone forming from the sand before it launched directly upwards towards his head. He unhooked both explosive kunai from his belt and let them start to fall, eyeing the spear and waiting as long as he could before-

"Substitution!" Kame blinked over to where Wasp had hovered while it took his place, sitting at his center of mass so that the spear of rock sailed directly over it. He himself was now fifteen feet or so in the air above Tetsute, and he knew he'd made a mistake when the other boy turned without breaking stride, already most of the way through another jutsu:

"Earth Style: Sandstone Fist." A large, blunt fist of rock punched out through the growing dunes of sand and threatened to break most of Kame's ribs.

Luckily, he still had an undetonated windbomb on his chest and set it off to launch himself back towards the quicksand pit, already gathering chakra in his right palm as he slowly turned in the air. As soon as he was at the right angle to the quicksand he set off the windbomb on his back as well, sending himself flying once more past the halfway point of the lake of quicksand but not escaping the wide area of danger just yet.

"What the hell?" Tetsute's muttered confusion failed to distract Kame as he finally gathered enough chakra in his palm one more time.

"Wind Style: Gale Force Jutsu!" He launched himself upwards and away from both Tetsute and his pit of quicksand one final time, this time flying right into the treeline and landing hard on a branch before looking back towards his old rival.

"Cute," Tetsute commented, his smirk still very much active, "But not cute enough. Earth Style: Sandstone Wall!" Another wall of earth sprung into place between him and Kame.

 _Wait_ , Kame realized, _Shit, I didn't_ \- he turned his gaze to the fight between Haku and Rakuyo, which was impressively even. Rakuyo managed to play the right angles and keep Haku from closing using her speed, while Haku managed to dodge nearly every incoming projectile, making it a moving standoff- at least until Tetsute shouted "Sleep!" and Haku faltered in a leap, dropping unconscious midair.

"And there it is," Tetsute shouted from behind his wall of sandstone, letting it drop away apparently just so he could see Kame's face while he gloated. "I told you-"

Kame's two dropped kunai finally fell the remaining distance and passed through the air just behind Tetsute. Kame wished he had a better one-liner to spit at his enemy, but in the moment all he could think of was "And I told _you_ to shut up."

A single handsign blew both weakened paperbombs point-blank right next to the Sand genin's back and enveloped him in an explosion of heat and force, blasting him out into his own pit of quicksand and probably scalding his back. Rakuyo, who'd walked over to the unconscious Haku, realized her mistake when a pair of purple eyes snapped open and focused on her, and Haku's hand had swiped out one of her legs before she could dart away.

Haku swung another fist down towards Rakuyo's head but halted it at the last moment. Her rage turned to fear as some memory must have run through her head, followed by disgust, and she finally rose to her feet and shifted back to gratitude, _deep_ gratitude, as she turned back to face Kame. "Thanks!" she shouted, with a lot more than simple cheerfulness at their victory behind it.

"You..." Rakuyo rose to her feet as well, hand twitching towards the pouch of projectiles at her belt. Kame was about to shout a warning to Haku when Rakuyo seemed to get a grip, relenting and letting her hand fall away from the weapons. "You're lucky you ended up with Kame to carry you, Kodoku," she spat, turning towards Miriki as well as he dropped from a tree- "The same goes for you, Loverboy. You're both useless."

Haku seemed to take the words hard, but Miriki simply smiled and shrugged. For once he didn't seem to feel the need to make any comeback, instead shoving his hands in his pockets and whistling. It seemed to only piss of Rakuyo even further as she hurled more insults, but Haku took after Miriki's example and both simply walked away without giving her the pleasure of enraged reactions.

"Well, I think that went well," Kame said, dropping out of his tree to join the other two and taking a few strides off towards the courtyard they'd need to reach to end the test.

"You're welcome for that, by the way," Miriki replied innocently, falling into step behind Kame.

"Excuse me?" Kame had just done about seventy percent of the work in that fight on his own, and to hear Miriki say something like _that_ was-

"Well, I mean, I threw them off at the start of the fight, right?" Miriki spread his hands. "That distracted 'em."

"I fail to see-"

"It's simple," Miriki interjected. "Because of my complex psychological manipulations and machinations, I-"

"You made sex jokes about Tetsute's mother and sister," Haku noted.

"As I said, complex psychological manipulations and machinations. I managed to cause them to become subconsciously imbalanced, which made them underperform in the fight and lead to our victory."

Kame blinked a few times at his teammate's audacity. "Me and Haku took out Genji and-"

"Ah, but Genji only lost because he missed his Wind Blade, which was due to his distraction from my psychological warfare-"

"Sex jokes," Haku corrected once more, but this time with the beginnings of a smile on her face.

"Okay," Kame said, "But Tetsute was all me."

"Did he make any mistakes in the fight?" Miriki raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't watching, sorry."

Kame massaged his temple, feeling the beginnings of a headache. "You're really going to claim credit for a fight you didn't even witness?"

"Did Tetsute make any mistakes?"

"Yes," Kame hissed, "Of course he did, he lost the fight, didn't he-"

"Then they were because of my psychological warfare," Miriki finished triumphantly. "You two're lucky to have me on the team."

"You can't say that!" Kame finally failed to keep his indignant annoyance from spreading across his face. "By that logic you're responsible for every fight where you ever speak to anyone involved! What kind of-" He cut himself off as he noticed Miriki suppressing a snicker and realized he was being messed with. Instead he focused on calling Wasp back from where it had fallen, far from the fight, and ordered it back up into his hands to check for damage. He saw Haku laughing at a joke Miriki made and allowed himself a smile as well. All that was left was a short hike back to the courtyard, after which they'd have passed the second round of the chunin exams as well.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Sand):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Graduation Exam Data: Genji Sanakishi**

Ninjutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Seijo Namae) Notes: _Above-average grasp of Wind Release, knows several complex jutsu_

Genjutsu: D  
\- Instructor (Maindo Kosu) Notes: _Able to dispel genjutsu, but no talent for casting them_

Taijutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Saitama Kenji) Notes: _Excellent speed and sword technique, passable power and durability, remarkable dexterity  
_ \- Instructor (Nagano Tsukia) Notes: _Impressive with thrown weapons, test scores improperly reflect his true skills._

Appearance: _Age fourteen. Below-average height (5'3"), unremarkable build, dark brown hair and eyes. Typically wears clothing designed more for comfort than utility or durability beneath Sand genin vest and headband._

Attitude: _Gets along well with other students, respects teachers and completes assignments, but never exceeds criteria or pushes himself. Does not appear to have much passion for shinobi work._

History: _Originates from the Sanakishi family of civilian desk-workers with strong ties to the Kosuki in the Hidden Sand due to the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats. Although ninja from the Sanakishi are not unheard-of, he is the first in two generations to seek out the career path. Joined the Shinobi Academy late only two days after another student (Miriki Kosuki) suggesting a possible connection. Proceeded to perform up-to-par in most areas of study up until his graduation, although final exams showed particularly poor performances._


	13. Bloodlines

"C'mon, let's eat, twenty minutes either way isn't going to make a difference…" Miriki wheedled away at Kame. The sun had set, but they were nearing the courtyard even through the darkness. The ambient light from the now-nearby village and the moon was enough for them to travel through the forest, although Kame wasn't sure if it was enough to see an ambush coming. "Come onnnn, please? If there's people, we don't want to fight them on an empty stomach, right? Look, look, this is a great spot here!" he said, as they reached a spot where the dirt of the forest floor dropped straight down into a secluded cave of sorts.

 _I'm going to regret this,_ thought Kame, but he still shrugged and dropped down. "Fine, Miriki, we can stop for twenty minutes to eat, but then no more complaining." His squadmate nodded happily and joined him on the ground, Haku sitting with them as well. They all removed various rations from their packs and dug in, and Kame had to admit that Miriki had been at least a little bit right. The stale rations were still great considering he'd been running, stressing, or fighting for several hours straight.

They ate in relative silence, ever-cautious about possible enemies emerging. Kame didn't think that the weakened Cloud, Stone, or Mist teams would attack them, and Tetsute's squad was also unlikely to seek revenge, but that left four teams that were still out there. _Still, it's just a short little walk to the courtyard. We might even finish a whole day before the deadline._

Even after he finished his dinner and was putting the containers away, movement off to the left caught Kame's eye. He leaped up into a ready position and drew a weapon, but loosened slightly when he saw who it was.

A dirty and bedraggled squad of Valley genin walked towards them, with Keikiro throwing up a hand in greeting. "Hey guys, what's… what's up…?" She was obviously trying to look happy, but there was no disguising the pain in her voice or the weak stumble that messed up her walking. Looking at the other two, Gunaji's arm hung limp by his side and Sagino's forehead was bloodied. _Who could have done this to them?_

Miriki was beside Keikiro in an instant, putting her arm over his shoulder and helping carry her over to their camp. "Keikiro… what happened? Why are you guys hurt so bad?"

The smaller genin swallowed. "I… we attacked…" She seemed to be at a complete loss for words, but thankfully Gunaji decided to help her out.

"It was the Leaf team, the younger one." His eyes were hard as he recounted the battle. "We tracked down an escaping Stone team that had a member missing, and took them out. They had six tokens on them, so we grabbed the tokens and booked it towards the courtyard. But, when we got there, they… the team with the Uchiha was waiting, and I think they'd already taken out multiple other teams. The Uchiha girl, I think her name was Naruko, she was gloating about them already having twelve tokens.

"We tried to make it to the courtyard but the Senju one used the Wood Release and stopped us, and then the Uchiha hit us with a genjutsu that trapped us inside our own minds. Sagino got out, but the Hyuga took her down like it was nothing and then came after me and disabled my arm. We tried to escape but they got ahold of my pack, so we lost all of our six of our tokens to them."

Kame nodded, mind racing, and lost in his thoughts as he was he failed to notice Miriki scooting over and grabbing his pack. Before he could ask what the other boy was doing, the pack was open and Miriki had grabbed three of their tokens, holding them out to the Valley genin. "Here, you can have these."

 _What the hell are you doing!?_ Kame briefly considered telling Miriki off but then slowed down and considered the situation. If eighteen of the tokens were already out of the picture, then giving three to the Valley team wouldn't hurt- in fact, as long as both teams made it through the gate, then they should have the same passing guarantee. _Of course, that assumes we can make it through the gate,_ thought Kame darkly.

"If they beat you so handily, then I doubt we can take them on," Kame reasoned. "Therefore, I think we should form a temporary alliance."

Gunaji nodded. "That seems like the best course. But-"

Kame already knew what he was going to say. "We'll take tonight to rest up and attack them tomorrow. I can take first watch, then Haku, then Miriki." Gunaji looked like he was going to object, but Kame shook his head. "No, you guys won't take watches. You need to rest and try to recover if you're going to be much help."

Gunaji relented and pulled out his bedroll, and his allies did so as well. Kame climbed up to sit above the others on the dirt ledge, scanning the area as best as he could. However, try as he might to avoid it, his thoughts still drifted to the Leaf team that they'd have to fight. During their first mission, the Valley genin seemed to have similar levels of combat effectiveness as team eight. For them to be beaten so brutally, so easily… how strong was this Leaf team?

They had the Hyuga's Byakugan and Gentle Fist, the Uchiha's Sharingan, and now apparently the Senju Wood Release. In comparison, Kame's complete lack of any kekkeigenkai, Haku's inability to reliably access hers, and Miriki's mediocre smell and taste alteration seemed so very weak. His thoughts got more and more pessimistic as he kept considering the situation. _We have to approach them from the front, because the courtyard has only one side open to the battleground. They'll see us coming, and then what?_

_If I try a mass assault of explosives, then… no, it will either fail and our hand will be tipped, or it succeeds and they die. I don't want to kill them. What's the path, then? Gunaji has a good mid-range jutsu, but he's hurt and probably not operating at full capacity. Keikiro is more of a sensory or utility ninja than anything else. If Haku tries anything, she'll just get put under that Uchiha's genjutsu immediately. Miriki is outgunned in the genjutsu department and doesn't have much else going for him, and I…_

_I guess it all comes down to me, then._ Kame shuddered at the responsibility on his shoulders, the image of that black-haired girl glaring at him growing more and more imposing in his mind. He started running mock battles in his head, thinking through every possible outcome with all the information laid out before him. Every single one seemed to end in him being overpowered, Haku being caught in genjutsu, and Miriki getting immediately taken out.

 _We have to somehow get at least one member through that- Wait…_ a chill of cold terror went through him as he realized that the Leaf team probably could have crossed a long time ago. _Why didn't they? Do they enjoy harming the other teams?_ When he thought about the proud Naruko girl looking at him like a disgusting insect, that theory didn't seem all that far off of reality. _Maybe they're overachievers trying to get as high of a score as possible._

He hadn't even noticed how late it was until his timer let out a small noise, alerting him to wake up Haku. _Maybe some sleep will give me the ideas that my waking mind can't_ , he thought, as he shook his teammate awake and laid down to rest.

* * *

The next morning, Haku returned the favor and brought him back to consciousness. When he blinked awake, the first thought in his mind was: _What's that smell? What the- who cooked miso soup? In this forest!?_ He sat bolt upright, looking around for the delicious food that he hadn't expected. _Maybe Keikiro or Gunaji or Sagino have secret talents with cooking?_ His mouth literally watering, he looked around to see the other shinobi all… eating… normal rations…

"Miriki, you son of a-"

Miriki grinned at Keikiro, who was suppressing a giggle. "See, I told you that the smell alteration wasn't useless."

Kame looked at the field rations in his pack and how little he'd be able to enjoy eating them after being tempted with one of his favorite breakfasts. "Miriki, as the democratically elected team leader, I'm going to…" he thought about it for a moment, and with nothing coming to mind, simply collapsed onto his back lamely. "Ugh. Don't do that again."

After choking down the bland calorie bars, he packed back up his bag and took a quick parts check on Wasp. _Maybe I fired too much during that last fight,_ he thought, as Wasp had run through about 70% of its needles. _That means that I can't use that as much during this next fight…_

Gunaji, Sagino, and Keikiro all looked miles better. Gunaji's arm looked to have recovered from having its chakra point overloaded, Keikiro's fatigue was all but gone, and Sagino's forehead injury had bled a lot but wasn't all that bad when she was cleaned up. _But that doesn't mean they're at full power_ , Kame reminded himself. _I need to be careful about how much I try to get them to do._

"Alright then, guys, I'm going to be honest with you." He swallowed a little bit, nervous about the concession he was about to make. "I don't have a full plan of attack. From how you guys described them, these guys seem pretty strong, and I don't know if they have any more powers that they didn't use. Therefore, I think we just have to do this on a matchup basis. That way, the teams of two can improvise mid-fight, and I can make sure to try to keep all of you away from the people who can exploit your weaknesses."

The genin around him nodded their agreement. "So, I thought about this a lot, and here's what I have. Naruko, the Uchiha, seems like a genjutsu specialist, so I think me and Gunaji should try to take her on. We both know how to release genjutsu, and she doesn't seem to have any special defense against our physical attacks. Sagino and Miriki, you two should go after the Wood Style user, and Haku and Keikiro, you guys take on the Hyuga. Also, you two should carry the tokens, since you're the fastest."

Miriki coughed a little bit. "You're putting Haku up against their extreme taijutsu specialist? Doesn't the Gentle Fist work specifically well against other taijutsu users?"

Kame nodded. "Yeah, it seems bad, but keep in mind that the primary effect of the Gentle Fist is that even glancing blows can take away your chance to use jutsu. However, Haku doesn't use jutsu, which mean that having her arms' chakra points blocks should be _less_ bad than it is for us. Plus, she has the best chance of being able to dodge his attacks."

Miriki nodded, quieting down a bit, and then as if an unspoken agreement was reached, all of them stood and started to move towards their objective. As they neared the edge of the forest, Kame tossed back one final bit of advice. "Keep in mind that, in order to pass this test, only one person from each team has to pass into the courtyard."

With that, they broke through the treeline and stood across a grass clearing from the genin squad of the Hidden Leaf. For a moment, all was still, and then they charged.

Kame readied and launched a stream of paper airplanes, but the Uchiha (with Sharingan clearly visible in their eyes) seemed to know what was going on with them and took them out of the air with kunai, shaking him a little bit; so far only Rakuyo had been skilled enough with ranged weapons to do that. Gunaji's stones whipped off towards her, and she couldn't knock those out of the sky- she could, however, dodge them, which she did with seeming ease.

While she was off-balance, Kame launched another airplane at her, detonating it in mid-air to fill the area with a dark smoke. _That should keep her Sharingan under control,_ he thought, as he readied Wasp to swing around and attack her from the side. He realized his mistake, though, when Gunaji leaped back and had to recall his attacking stones. "Crap, sorry, dude."

 _So more smoke bombs are out of the question._ Kame hovered Wasp at the edge of the smoke cloud, preparing himself but also taking a moment to look at the other two teams' fights. Haku appeared to be going even with their taijutsu user, while Keikiro was edging around the back and moving towards the goal. Sagino was forcing her way forward through a barrage of wooden attacks, her stone skin unyielding against the wood that splintered against her. Miriki appeared to be looking for an opening to attack through the crashing waves of wood all originating at the Senju heir, who… _What?_ The boy had the veined and pale eyes of someone with the Byakugan.

Before he could think about that any further, the smoke had cleared enough and he sent Wasp flying forward towards Naruko. He fired off a few needles at her, but she deflected them with a kunai fairly easily. Gunaji's rocks came back in, but this time she dropped under them and rolled forward, making a few seals in her hands. Suddenly, Gunaji yelped and then froze in place, staring at her. _So her genjutsu is visual, huh? It's most likely centered around her eyes._

Kame made a mental note not to look into those eyes and continued his assault. After her forward dash, Wasp was now behind her, which meant that he could attack with it more seriously. A twitch of his finger launched one of its legs forward, straight towards Naruko's leg. She turned, raising her kunai to deflect it, but misjudged both the size of the projectile and its location, an error that cost her as Wasp's bladed leg sank deep into her leg.

And then she disappeared into a puff of smoke, and a new Naruko shimmered into being directly behind Wasp. A quick swing of her kunai broke the puppet seal, and it fell uselessly to the ground, its chakra cord severed. _Crap, falling for a clone jutsu like some academy student,_ Kame thought. _To be fair, though, the Shadow Clone Jutsu is a jonin level technique that takes a huge amount of chakra- just how skilled is this girl?_

Naruko seemed to be looking at him, although he couldn't know since he wasn't able to meet her eyes. She made a series of seals that started with tiger- a fire style attack was incoming, then. After running through them, the hands were raised to her face level and she shouted, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" A searing spray of flame launched forward and Kame had to leap to the side, all but tackling Gunaji out of the way. _What the hell is she thinking, throwing that technique towards an incapacitated opponent!?_

Kame threw another airplane, but instead of dodging or intercepting it she threw a barrage of kunai at him. Incapacitated while blocking them with his own kunai, all he could do was watch helplessly as the plane trailed by, unable to detonate it. _She's really, really good. But she did just get cocky and leave the bomb there, which could cost her later._ His win condition had changed- now, it was to force her back onto the settled bomb.

Running to the left to avoid another Fireball Jutsu, he rapidly got some napalm paper and folded the planes that made the loop-de-loop in his hands, tossed two of them forwards, then concentrated his chakra. By the time the planes finished their loop and returned to the space in front of him, he'd charged up enough. "Gale Force Jutsu!" the huge blast of wind pushed him backwards and out of range of her next attack, while also launching the planes forward far quicker than she could defend against. Smirking, he made a separate seal (for firebombs, it was different than the snake seal that he used for the basic ones) and the two planes exploded, showering Naruko with flame.

 _Wait, crap, I shouldn't have done that_. He remembered himself reproachfully thinking about how she'd done a similar thing mere minutes ago. His worry evaporated almost immediately, though, as a thrown kunai came arcing down towards him. Kame simply sidestepped it, peering closely to see that Naruko had dodged- _She dodged backwards. I knew that it would cost her_ , he thought, and made the snake seal.

Immediately, he felt himself blasted to the side, pain shooting through every nerve in his right leg. _What!?_ He landed a few feet away, panicking at the nerves screaming throughout his whole body now. He'd never been in this much pain, not even when he'd broken a rib, and it was all he could to do to keep from breaking down, suppressing a scream from exiting his mouth.

However, his mind cleared a little bit as the feeling started to fade, replaced with a cool numbness. Turning his head, he saw Keikiro standing beside him, concentrating as a green-blue light poured from her hands onto his leg. "K… Kei… Keikiro, what are you… doing…" Kame uttered through gritted teeth, but the Valley kunoichi just ignored him. The light intensified a little bit, and then her eyes fluttered and she keeled over.

 _Does she know medical ninjutsu!? That's incredibly high-level stuff; has she been a prodigy this whole time?_ Kame tried to stand and found that he could now. His right pant leg was a tattered mess, but the flesh visible through the holes appeared raw yet undamaged. She'd definitely healed him somehow- but the details were for another time. Kame felt a wave of shame and anger tear through him. _Naruko must have put my own paperbomb on that kunai and hidden it with a genjutsu. When I detonated it, I was the one who got blasted._

For her part, Naruko looked almost bored, spinning another kunai. For the first time since the fight began, she called out to Kame: "Are you about done? Is that _really_ all you've got?"

Kame narrowed his eyes and started to snarl a retort but realized his mistake when he looked up into her eyes to say it. She smirked even wider and made a quick handsign, and suddenly Kame couldn't move his body at all. _She got me with the genjutsu. Damn; I think we lost this now, there's not way-_

Then Haku came flying in from the side and leaped sideways feet-first in a midair kick, pounding Naruko in the midsection with both feet. The Uchiha girl's eyes widened and then Haku's legs extended, sending their target flying off to the side hard enough to crunch her into the wall. It was little wonder that she lost focus on her genjutsu, allowing Kame and Gunaji to move again. Haku straightened up and looked like she was about to say something, but then the Hyuga was on her in milliseconds, slamming a chakra-enhanced hand into her arm.

Haku turned to look at the boy with something approaching disdain in her eyes. _I guess I was right; she does have immunity to the Gentle Fist._ The third Leaf ninja, though, was still a huge threat. He yelled out, "Wood Style: Rootspike!" and large wooden growths began to spit out from the ground and forced the Valley and Sand genin to dodge constantly. Kame hurled an airplane at the boy, but gasped when he looked down- _Crap; I'm running out of paperbombs. I'm down to… two napalm, three wind, and four regular._

The plane flew straight and true, but the Byakugan-wielding wood user seemed to know exactly what it did, sending a branch out from his defensive wall that impaled the plane, breaking the bomb before he could detonate it. He restrained himself from sending out another one, realizing he'd have to make them all count at this point, and turned to Haku, saying, "Thank for the save!"

She nodded and then turned her attention to the Hyuga, but then jerked forward as a kunai hit her in the shoulder. Whirling around, her eyes widened and then she stopped moving entirely. _There's no way…_ but Kame saw his fears confirmed at the sight of Naruko, shaky but still on her feet and Sharingan still active. _She's still conscious after that kick!?"_

Naruko made another series of seals and then spat out, "Fire Style: Running Flame!" A huge fire blazed to life before her and came curving over towards Haku, who was still out from the genjutsu. Kame's eyes widened in horror and he started to run towards her. _She's already trapped in the genjutsu; why is Naruko attacking her?_ He could only watch as the fire blasted into Haku, launching her back into the wooden wall of the Namikaze. The fire curved again, now coming straight at him, and he was forced to roll to the right, still feeling it singe his leg.

The fire still came at him, faster and faster, but he managed to dodge it each time. However, he couldn't manage any offense around the constant assault, and even worse, the fire was getting faster. _I can't keep this up; what do I do?_ The question was answered, though, when Naruko swore loudly and the fire spluttered out. _What the hell happened…?_

Looking up, Kame saw the answer to his question. Keikiro and Haku, both unconscious, were laying _inside_ the courtyard. _We passed. We passed!_ Kame felt a huge grin split his face and he fist-pumped in victory. _I guess that Sagino, Miriki and I did such a good job distracting the Leaf ninja that…_

 _Wait, how did the two unconscious people get into the courtyard?_ Suddenly, two little black forms came flying out from under the kunoichi and into Gunaji's waiting hand. _The stones... h_ _e must have used them to move Haku and Keikiro._

Naruko swore again and glared at the two girls, kunai in hand. She hopped the fence and walked towards them, shaking slightly, and Kame started forward- _She's unstable; she might actually…_ before she could do anything, though, the Hyuga dashed over to her and said said something that actually seemed to make her _more_ angry, yet instead of attacking the two unconscious ninja, she stomped over to a corner of the courtyard and stood there glowering. Her two teammates quickly joined her there.

 _Oh, she must have been the one carrying the tokens, so when she hopped the fence she finished the exam for her team._ Kame was perturbed by how intense her rage at only getting _eighteen_ points was. She'd won this stage by far more than she needed to; why was she looking at Haku and Keikiro like they'd just killed her family in front of her?

 _Wait- Haku and Keikiro!_ Kame dashed over to stand beside his downed teammate, feeling a sharp spike of fear at the sight of her unconscious. She'd been struck from the front by Naruko's flame jutsu, and it showed- there were serious burns on her stomach and thighs. "Medical ninja? Anyone!?" Kame felt the panic show in his voice, but with his teammate lying injured on the ground in front of him he honestly couldn't care less.

The door to the courtyard was knocked open and a few medical ninja stepped out, carrying a stretcher. Kame could only watch as they loaded Haku onto it and walked back out, hoping that they could help her when he couldn't. _I failed. For all of my planning, my paperbombs, my… everything, I'm too weak._ He let himself drop to one knee, resting his head in one of his hands. _We had more numbers, we had surprise, and… we still lost. I got injured, Haku got injured. How the hell are we ever going to beat these people?_

Miriki nudged him with a foot, smiling way too much for the situation at hand. _I'm not in the mood for your stupid jokes, Miriki, so take-_ "We'll be okay, Kame." Kame looked up to see his Hatogan still active. "We passed this test, and we'll pass the next one. Haku's not going to die, and that Naruko girl isn't a demigod… although, to resist my charms, she's damn well close to one..."

Kame gritted his teeth, but his jaw dropped when he saw Miriki walk over towards the Leaf team. He was forced to jump to his feet and dash to try and stop the boy, but was once again too slow to do anything but listen. "So, Naruko, that's a pretty nice genjutsu you got there, huh?"

Her eyes flared and she spat back, "Nice enough to take out two of you and get eighteen tokens, loser."

Miriki raised his eyebrows and held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, hey, we're all friends here, right? No need to flip out on me, babe."

She started angrily towards him but was stopped by the Hyuga boy holding her arm. He looked at her and said, "Please, Naruko, calm down. We won the round, by six times their score. That's enough, right?"

Miriki looked at the boy, then at the girl, and then back again, a grin spreading across his face. "Ohhh, I see… That's your secret." When the two of them looked at him with confusion, he actually laughed. "Not many women can resist my advances, but I see that you already had a lover… my bad, my bad, I should have been trying a lot harder."

The Hyuga boy flushed bright red and started to say something to Miriki, but Naruko beat him to the punch. "Shut the f… Shut your mouth. You're an untalented waste of oxygen from a no-name clan in the middle of the desert, so get that cocky smirk off of your face and show some respect."

Miriki, if anything, smiled _wider_. "Hey, that's some indecent language from an important heir to Leaf village royalty, no? I think you need your mouth washed out." Something happened, and then Naruko gagged, spitting on the ground in front of herself and cursing wildly.

"You…." She seemed to figure it out and straightened back up, eyes wild. _Miriki, if you push her any further, she'll…_ Kame realized what his teammate was doing. _This is his own way of taking revenge for Haku. He's always been more of a talker than a fighter, I guess it figures that he'd find a way to make people that upset with just his words._

Miriki rolled his eyes and started to turn and walk away. "The whole forest and even this courtyard are plastered with video cameras. Wouldn't want all the gathered jonin to see you lose your shit after being taunted… oh, wait, it's too late for that one. Good luck making chunin when a rank genin can make you froth at the mouth." As he stepped away, Naruko's hand twitched and she seemed to be teetering on the bare edge of doing something violent, but with her teammates restraining her and all of the jonin watching, she reluctantly turned back to her own squad.

Kame let the tiniest of smiles creep onto his face. "Miriki, I have to say, you're _really_ good at that."

He shrugged. "There's a reason my clan is still in the Hidden Sand without producing ninja. The Hatogan is better in a business meeting or diplomatic mission than in a battle."

"What do you mean?" Kame didn't see how altering senses would be useful in a casual, conversational setting.

"Well, I just used it on Naruko…" He wasn't getting it.

"No; but why would making them taste soap be useful on a diplomatic mission?"

Miriki seemed to finally figure out the argument and rolled his eyes. "No, not that, idiot. I mean that I looked into her mind; she's deadly afraid of failing the chunin exams. Or, at least, she was… now she's just angry at me, and you, and Haku. I don't need Hatogan to see that."

Kame shook his head. _She demolished this test and passed with eighteen tokens; why the hell would she be afraid of failing the exams?_ His thinking was cut short by the arrival of another squad in the training yard. Turning around, he saw Kosu, Zandeina, and Dako all stepping through the fence gate. _Okay, so that's four teams now._ Zandeina dropped a pile of five tokens, which meant… _There's one token left. Whoever got that one will be the last team to pass._

Kame wondered who it would be, but groaned internally as he looked up and saw a burned, limping Tetsute walking towards the courtyard, followed by Rakuyo and Genji. _Why the hell did it have to be them?_ Tetsute stepped through the gate, head downcast, probably beating himself up over his single token. The second Rakuyo and Genji made it through behind him, the gate snapped shut and Metal Lee appeared in the middle of the courtyard.

"Greeting, genin teams! The teams that passed have now been decided, so congratulations to everyone here! The top team, with eighteen tokens, is team one from the Hidden Leaf, composed of Naruko Uchiha, Kakuzen Uzumaki, and Sureki Hyuga!" Naruko didn't move at all during the announcement, but Sureki smiled and Kakuzen simply nodded.

"In second place with five tokens, team four from the Cloud, composed of Dako Nakimoka, Zandeina Ryukana, and Kosu Iburi!" Zandeina shot a glare at the Leaf team, Dako grunted and nodded, and Kosu began doing a victory dance seemingly for himself. _Ryukana… where have I heard that surname before?_ thought Kame. "In third place with three tokens, team eight from the Sand, composed of Kame Hakiara, Haku…" Metal paused, glancing at the paper, before clearing his throat and continuing. "And Miriki Kosuki!" Kame grinned and saw Miriki do the same.

"In fourth place also with three tokens, but a lower written test score, team five from the Hidden Valley: Gunaji Kokuseki, Sagino Kokuseki, and Keikiro Torrakku." Keikiro seemed to have recovered enough to sit up and wave weakly, her teammates surrounding her. "And finally, in fifth place with one token: team seven from the Sand: Tetsute Hasagi, Rakuyo Kuyanari, and Genji Sanakishi." None of them celebrated at all, Tetsute's hand visibly tightening on the single token he held. _He's not going to take this well,_ thought Kame. _To not only barely get through, but also do worse than the people he looked down…_

Metal put his hands on his hips and smiled widely. "Again, congratulations to all of you for getting this far! We will have a full day of down-time; after which you must all report to the arena for one-on-one duels. Your opponents will be revealed to you once you have arrived, so prepare for all possible outcomes. Exit through this door when you're ready;" he pointed to a lower door that presumably led back into the village, "Your sensei are waiting for you."

As Kame stepped forward towards the exit, he tried to bask in the glory that he'd felt when passing the first stage of the exam, but his mind was too focused on worrying about Haku to be happy.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Valley):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Academy Graduation Exam Data: Sagino Kokuseki**

Ninjutsu: C  
\- Instructor (Haruto Kokuseki) Notes: _Mediocre skills outside of earth change of nature_

Genjutsu: D  
\- Instructor (Seishi Torakku) Notes: _Able to dispel genjutsu, but no skill with casting_

Taijutsu: B  
\- Instructor (Sakura Nagakura) Notes: _Clan techniques make up for her lack of dedication or physical skills_

Appearance: _Age fourteen, tall height (5'8"), solid build, long, straight grey hair and flat grey eyes of clan. Typically clad in casual civilian dresses or skirts with clan emblems underneath requisite Valley genin vest and headband._

Attitude: _Lack of motivation contrasts sharply with twin brother (Gunaji Kokuseki). Possibly only working as shinobi due to clan pressures, but willing to complete tasks to the bare minimum._

History: _Raised with twin brother (Gunaji Kokuseki), entered academy at the same time as him and was immediately overshadowed by his success. Passed alongside him despite mediocre showings in most areas, possibly also due to clan's influence._


	14. Uneasy Allies

Deihaka was beaming at them when they made it into the lobby. _Huh_ , Kame thought, _The only place that I've seen that overkill level of pride is in new parents._ Their sensei had been talking to Senshiko, but as soon as they exited he darted over to them and held up his hands for high-fives. _Wait, seriously?_ Kame complied, a bit put off by how childish his jonin leader was acting.

Miriki, on the other hand, ran up and gave a double high-five to Deihaka, grinning like an idiot. "Yeah! We did it, sensei!"

"You bet you did it! It's all thanks to my incredibly amazing teaching skills. If I hadn't made all those great executive teaching decisions, you all wouldn't be standing here!" _Deihaka-sensei, what are you saying?_ Kame shook his head in exasperation. _Aren't teachers supposed to give the credit to their students?_

Miriki cocked his head. "You can't take _all_ the credit, Deihaka-sensei." _You're right, Miriki, we also-_ "If it weren't for my incredible leadership skills and genius-level intellect, then I don't think we could have passed either exam."

Deihaka nodded sagely. "Well done, Miriki." He turned to Kame, who was restraining himself from letting loose on the two of them in public. _I think they're actually getting worse- or maybe Miriki is just infecting Deihaka-sensei bit by bit._ "Kame, I'm proud of you and Haku as well. Oh, speaking of Haku, you guys are probably worried about her; she was taken to the hospital, but she should be alright."

Kame, remembering something they'd been told at the very start of the exam, turned around to confront Metal Lee, who had followed them out of the courtyard. "Metal Lee- er, Proctor. Will Naruko Uchiha be disqualified?"

Metal Lee appeared to freeze up for a brief moment, glancing briefly at the Leaf squad and then back at Kame before returning to a more casual expression. "I do not plan to disqualify her, no."

Kame narrowed his eyes. "You don't plan to? Why? Didn't you announce at the start of the exam that attempts to kill or injure other participants would be met with severe repercussions? Where are the repercussions for her grievously wounding my teammate?"

Metal sighed. "Did you not also burn two opponents with your explosives?"

"That's-" Kame hesitated. "It wasn't as serious, they both walked away without serious injury. I think you're playing favorites- could it be because she's the pride and joy of your village?"

Deihaka took his shoulder and pulled him away before he said something that he couldn't take back. "Come on, Kame." The older Sand jonin turned around, starting towards the door. "Let's go check on Haku in the hospital, okay?"

Kame nodded, although his heart still seethed with resentment for the favoritism shown to his Leaf rival. They exited the building and then took a sharp right, going down a few blocks and drawing glances from the people on the streets. _I guess they're not used to ninja wearing Sand uniform, huh?_ In sharp contrast to the green and pocketed utility vests of the Hidden Leaf, Sand shinobi wore dark brown combat vests that were build more for protection than storage.

When they entered the hospital, an attendant seemed to recognize them and directed them down a short hallway on the ground floor. They passed by rooms cordoned off with cloth barriers, but Kame still got glimpses of a few of the Mist, Cloud, and Stone shinobi, none of whom looked all that harmed. However, at the end of the hallway, there was a far more serious-looking room behind a set of double-doors. The hospital worker stopped them outside and then entered. Minutes passed, and Kame grew more and more terrified. _Those burns were pretty bad… and they happened during a genjutsu._ Although he knew from his studies that such an interaction wasn't anything special, his mind still ran rampant with theories.

It grew worse as the minutes stretched into hours, and he grew more and more terrified that something had gone wrong. _Even simple surgeries can go horrifically wrong if the doctor makes an error… Haku was hurt on her stomach; what if they accidentally broke her internal organs!?_ It took an extreme conscious effort to sit still and wait, but wait he did. For once, Miriki didn't read his thoughts, and Deihaka didn't make any attempts to alleviate the stress. All three of them sat there, silent, for hours on end.

Eventually, the door opened back up, and standing in it was a woman that made Kame's heart briefly stop. Pink-haired, wearing a red robe and with a green diamond on her forehead, he knew about this kunoichi because he'd read her name at least a thousand time. He barely managed to squeak out, "Sakura... Haruno..." She did not appear much older now than she had in her pictures, and Kame briefly remembered something about her Sannin mentor also appearing younger than she truly was.

Sakura gave him an odd look before turning to face Deihaka. "Alright, your charge is going to be just fine. She'll be up and about in a couple of minutes and should even be fine to compete in the tournament." _That's a relief…_ "I heard what happened and I'd like to apologize for what my granddaughter did to your friend."

Kame looked up sharply. _Granddaughter? Does that mean that Sarada Uchiha is Naruko's mother?_ Still, a burning question was in his mind, and before he could stop himself it turned to words. "Why? Why you? Why would they call you to treat Haku?"

"What!? I'm an incredibly accomplished medical ninja, you disrespectful whelp!" Sakura rolled up a sleeve, expression turning murderous.

Kame rapidly backed off, raising his hands in apology. "No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I know you're an incredibly talented medical ninja, probably the most talented one ever besides maybe your master Tsunade. But…" Sakura's face had softened a bit at the praise. "Why you? Haku's burns weren't life-threatening."

Sakura cocked her head, voice growing a bit colder. "I was called in to make sure that she could fight in the tournament."

 _But why would-_ Kame realized in horror the root of the slight shift in Sakura's attitude. _Naruko, her granddaughter and one of the few remaining Uchiha, can't afford to have taken an opponent out of the tournament- then they can't pretend they aren't bending the rules. If Haku can't fight, then Naruko grievously injured an opponent and should be disqualified._ He narrowed his eyes but didn't dare speak his mind before the legendary teammate of Naruto and Sasuke.

She seemed to sense his understanding of the situation and sighed. "I won't condone what my granddaughter did, but I'll ask you to keep it quiet. She's under an immense amount of pressure and has suffered in ways you don't understand."

 _That's it._ Kame interrupted the older ninja, unable to bite his tongue any longer. "She's unstable! Haku landed one hit on her, and in response Naruko trapped her in a genjutsu; but instead of leaving the defeated opponent be, she attacked my incapacitated teammate. If you don't muzzle her, she could-"

He stopped himself as Sakura finally allowed a faint hint of annoyance onto her face. As upset as he was, he knew this was the wrong target for him to vent and backtracked- "I'm sorry. What I mean to say is, thank you for coming to help heal my teammate. I'm honored to have met one of the Hidden Leaf's most legendary shinobi in the flesh."

She smiled at that. "You're welcome. Now, I have a granddaughter to congratulate," she finished, brushing past the Sand ninja and making her way back down the hallway.

Kame turned to watch her leave, but a voice from behind him brought him eyes back around to the hospital room. "Hey, guys… I'm glad to see you…" Haku's voice was weak, weaker than he'd ever heard it. When he saw her, she had bandages wrapped all around her upper legs and midriff. She smiled at them, but even that was shaky and obviously forced. _Haku, I… I shouldn't have let this happen._

Kame, Miriki, and Deihaka all rushed over to her bedside, with Deihaka asking the first question. "How do you feel? Did they heal all the burns?"

She nodded. "I think so… none of it hurts, anymore. I think I can…" She swung her leg over off of the bed and gasped in pain. "Agh! Okay, that's not happening."

Kame knitted his eyebrows in worry, hesitant to even touch the leg. "What's wrong? Is the burn still there?"

She shook her head. "Nah, but… the leg feels super sore. I guess that's from having the muscles rebuilt through healing jutsu, huh?" She moved across the other leg and, gritting her teeth, lifted herself off of the bed and onto her feet. "Nghh- Okay, I think I can move around, I'm just gonna have to walk it off."

Deihaka nodded, and then she turned around to rummage in her pack, removing another skirt and turning briefly to jerk her head towards the door of the room. Kame flushed bright red and hastily escaped, followed by the others, and after thirty seconds Haku followed. The medical bandages had been replaced with her normal athletic ones and over them she wore another purple skirt coming down to around her knees.

She winced with each step at first, but as she made forwards progress the winces grew weaker and weaker until she stopped altogether. They stepped out into the street and Kame only just realized how late it was- they'd woken up very late during the exam, maybe around lunchtime (due to all of them having exerted themselves so hard during the first day). Still, it was hard to believe that six whole hours had gone by planning, fighting, waiting, and then sitting in the hospital.

Deihaka scratched his head and pointed off to their left. "All the jonin squad leaders watched the camera feeds together, and I met the Leaf one. He recommended a dinner joint, so if you guys want to go there…?"

Haku nodded eagerly. "Yes, please!"

Miriki, though, awkwardly put a hand behind his head and cleared his throat. "Actually, Deihaka-sensei, I have a dinner date with Keikiro that I need to be going on, so…"

Deihaka's eyes lit up strangely. "Oh… yes. Yes! We can ask the Valley genin to come with us and do a team dinner!" Miriki opened his mouth to protest, but it was too late. "Executive teaching decision; we're doing a team date." _Oh…_ Kame realized why his sensei was acting so strangely. _He just wants an excuse to go to dinner with Senshiko, doesn't he?_

They found the Valley genin near the inn that most of the exam participants were staying in, waving them over and pitching the idea. Keikiro had the same reaction as Miriki, but the lovebirds were overruled by an oddly-pleased-looking Senshiko. The two teams made their way across the town and eventually ended up walking into a place called Ichiraku Ramen.

It was a small place, with four tables and ten barstools. Deihaka sat down on the far left, graciously offering Senshiko the seat beside him. Keikiro and Miriki sat next, then Sagino claimed the other spot beside Miriki and Gunaji the next spot beside Sagino. Kame sat next to Gunaji and Haku slid in beside him, leaving two empty seats to the right. Once they all got settled, an aging woman came out through a screen and smiled at them. "Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen, I'm Ayame, what can I get you?"

Kame took a look at the menu, seeing something called a 'Naruto Special'. _Well, obviously I'm getting that_ , he thought, holding up the menu and pointing at it. "Can I get one of these?" Ayame nodded. Haku ordered _three_ more of them, and Gunaji ordered only one. While the others ordered their food, Gunaji turned towards Kame and proffered a hand.

"Congrats on getting through stage one, man."

Kame smiled and returned the favor, giving him a handshake. "You too. Thanks for helping us out against the Leaf team."

Gunaji nodded. "No problem… I'm just more afraid of how we're gonna take them on in the finals…" _Yeah, no kidding,_ thought Kame. _Haku actually_ killed _a guy with one of her kicks, but a direct hit against Naruko didn't even knock her out._ "Anyway, I was surprised we even made it through the written exam. Keikiro and Sagino both got seventies, and I got a hundred, so we literally hit the bare minimum to pass."

Kame nodded. "We probably weren't going to make it, but Miriki's visual kekkegenkai got him a great score and I used my one cheat-for-free to give Haku my answers."

Gunaji eyes widened. "Ohh… so that ball of paper you threw... and they couldn't punish you because of the… that's pretty smart!" Kame tried not to look too pleased.

"Well, I think the real praise is for you, dude. If you hadn't lifted Haku and Keikiro into the courtyard, we might not have made it through that last one." Now it was Gunaji's turn to flush a little bit and turn away at the returned compliment. "Honestly, do you want to meet up tomorrow and talk strategy? At this point, those Leaf guys are the biggest threat, so I think it's in both of our interests to share information on them."

The Valley genin appeared to consider that briefly, and then nodded. "Okay, let's go to one of the training fields- wait, we're staying in the same inn, right? Let's just meet up at nine o'clock?"

Kame winced. "What about seven?" A two-hour gap in the morning sounded pretty painful to schedule around, and he didn't want to wake up late and waste all that time. Gunaji nodded, and then their food arrived.

When Kame turned his attention to the ramen before him, his heart fluttered a little bit- this was the best-smelling ramen he'd ever… well, smelled. The gathered ninja all muttered a quick "Thanks for the food", clearly distracted by the amazing food. When he spooned up a bite and ate it, he wasn't disappointed. _Your family's place can suck it, Tetsute,_ he thought, mind on an odd little high from finally shedding most of the stress he'd carried for the last two days.

He savored each bite, and was too busy eating to continue conversation. Beside him, Gunaji appeared to be doing the same thing. A glance to his left told another story, thought, as Haku was through a bowl and a half without showing signs of slowing. Kame actually froze as he watched his kunoichi teammate tear through the second bowl and start in on the third, which soon followed the other two and emptied. Even more ridiculously, she raised a hand and asked for _another bowl_.

He turned to look at Deihaka. _The other night, he acted like money was an issue, so what's he gonna- Wait, what the...?_ His sensei was slightly flushed, and an empty bottle of sake on the table before him told the rest of the story. _Deihaka-sensei is drunk._ Turning to look at Senshiko, Kame saw that the kunoichi jonin had drained three bottles and was also a little bit red in the face. _I don't like where this is going._

Miriki and Keikiro were giggling and in their own little world, while Sagino held a conversation with her twin brother Gunaji, sparing an occasional longing glance at Miriki. In that moment, Kame felt strangely ecstatic, happy to be sitting in a ramen shop surrounded by friends and people so full of life.

The moment broke when he heard footsteps from behind him. Somehow, he knew what he'd find, but turned anyway and saw his worst fears confirmed- Naruko Uchiha was standing there, arms crossed and looking at them with derision. Kame was just about to return the glare and maybe even insult her when the curtains behind the three genin opened once more and he saw two adults standing there. All traces of any disrespectful plans gone, his heart skipped multiple beats when he saw who they were:

Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha stood in the doorway, the former dressed in his trademark orange beneath a Kage's hat and smiling happily while the latter wore black and had a much more restrained expression. They both looked much older than the pictures Kame had seen, but despite the slight wear of time on their bodies, it was undeniably, unmistakably them. _I… they… it's really…_ Kame felt his mouth flop open but couldn't close it; two of his idols were standing right in front of him, _looking right at him_ , and all he could do was stare at them with widened eyes. _Come on, Kame, say something!_ He squeaked out, "Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen!" _No, not that, you god damn idiot._

Naruko's glare shifted to more repulsed than hateful, while Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, arms crossed. Naruto, on the other hand, grinned even wider and stepped forward to offer a handshake, saying, "Sand and Valley shinobi inviting me into my own hometown's ramen shop? Well, consider me welcomed!" His voice was just as the books had described, full of an infectious happiness and potent charisma.

Kame stared at the man's hand, still not quite registering what was going on. "I… I can't…" He shook his head, still looking at the hand.

"Why not?" Naruto's smile weakened slightly.

"Be- Because I- I'm not worthy!" Kame bowed his head and stared at the ground. _Can I embarass myself any more in front of Naruto and Sasuke?_ "You're the savior of the ninja world, the tailed-beast-tamer and jinchuriki of the strongest biju, the ninetails! You defeated Pain of the Akatsuki, Madara Uchiha, Kaguya Otsusuki, Toneri Otsutsuki, and all of the Akatsuki, I... you are the hero of _my_ hero, Gaara… I don't deserve to shake your hand!"

Naruto chuckled a little bit and then broke out into a full laugh, turning to face Sasuke. "Sasuke, you hearing this?"

"Yeah, I'm hearing all of those empty words," Sasuke drawled. "They're clearly misinformed if _you're_ the hero of the ninja world. I was right there fighting Kaguya with you, wasn't I?"

Kame interjected. "But you're no less impressive, Sasuke! You defeated Orochimaru of the sannin, Deidara of the Akatsuki, Itachi Uchiha, your own brother... you fought Naruto to a stalemate, and helped in the defeat of all of those enemies I credited to him..."

Sasuke finally cracked a smile, but Naruko's expression somehow soured even further. She sighed, "Grandfathers, can we get out of here?"

"Why?" Naruto hungrily glanced at the ramen they were eating.

"Because these losers are taking up the whole bar, so we might as well just go somewhere else. Besides, this kid can praise you all he wants, but he'd just a suck-up spewing empty words. He lost _hard_ to me during the exam second stage."

Naruto's smile didn't waver. "But they're _nice_ empty words, dearest. Besides, this is the reason they added the tables." He slid into one of the booths, motioning for Naruko to do the same. "This is your victory dinner, don't ruin it just because others also enjoy the ramen at Ichiraku."

Naruko concealed a sneer but sat anyway, and Ayame shuffled over to take their order. Kame tried to turn back and eat his food, but his eyes kept drifting off to focus on the living legends only a few short feet away from him. After minutes, he finally resumed his eating, forcing himself to consume the food, but choked on it and spat a whole mouthful back into the bowl when Naruto's voice came at him: "Hey, kid, you said that you knew Gaara? How is he; it's been a while!"

Kame spun around in time to see Sasuke roll his eyes and say, "You idiot, Gaara's coming anyway soon. The Kage gather to watch these tournaments, which you should know because you _are_ one and have been for decades."

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, I know, but I want to know what I'm walking into."

Kame found his voice. "Uhmm…Lord Gaara has been fine when I've met him…" Afraid of disappointing the Hokage, he searched his mind for more to say. "He's actually been a little bit stressed out lately, because Ha-" _Shit! I almost told him way too much!_ Kame remembered Gaara's explanation about the power balance between the villages, and he clammed up almost immediately.

Naruto raised an eyebrow but the brief exchange ended when Ayame gave him his food, so Kame took the chance to whirl back around and finish off his ramen. Haku gave him an incredibly hard to read look, but then finished her own bowl of ramen (the fifth one). Deihaka, now swaying and a little bit unsteady, was polishing off a third bottle of sake, while Senshiko's spot on the counter was littered with at least six empty bottles. Deihaka was staring at the woman's chest, and she didn't seem to mind, putting an arm over his shoulder and pulling him in tight.

Kame blushed and looked away, noticing that Miriki and Keikiro had both finished and were now holding hands. _Ugh._ Gunaji was staring at Sasuke intently, looking as amazed as Kame felt. After a few minutes of relative silence, Ayame walked up to their little group and laid a tab down on the counter. _That's…_ Kame jolted back a little bit. _Holy crap, that's three thousand ryo! How the hell did we eat that much?_

Deihaka, now leaning on Senshiko and hiccuping, seemed to interpret the check as a signal to leave, and dragged Senshiko out the door. Gunaji, Keikiro, and Sagino followed their sensei, and Miriki tagged along with Keikiro. _Wait a minute…_ Kame looked up, heart sinking, to see Ayame looking at _him_ expectantly. _Oh, crap._ For the briefest of moments, he considered trying to fob the check off onto Haku, but the thought was gone almost as soon as it entered his mind and he reluctantly pulled the necessary money from his wallet. _Well, there goes my pay for the last five missions…_

As he rose to exit, Naruko tossed a final double-edged comment at his back. "See you in a bit for a repeat, loser." Kame slowed down a little bit, but he wasn't about to fight her in the middle of the restaurant, so instead he just kept walking. He took a tiny bit of satisfaction in the immediate scolding from Naruto and Sasuke that followed her jab.

* * *

Kame woke up the next morning a lot more refreshed than he thought he'd be, considering that he'd slept on the floor of their room. Upon arriving at the inn, Deihaka and Senshiko had claimed the room originally reserved for the Valley squad for themselves, leaving the six genin to find a way to split the three-bed room reserved for the Hidden Sand. This had almost immediately ended in the three kunoichi getting the beds, but Miriki had weaseled into sleeping beside Keikiro and Sagino had agreed to let her brother Gunaji in next to her.

Kame, on the other hand, hadn't had the nerve to ask Haku to share her bed, so he'd ended up alone on the floor. _Although, it was surprisingly nice for a floor,_ he noted. When he sat up, he noticed that it was 6:30. _Enough time for breakfast before me and Gunaji go practice._ Looking around, he saw that Sagino and Keikiro were sitting on their beds talking, while Haku was still sleeping, seemingly wearing only her bandages as pajamas. However, as soon as he stood up, Sagino darted over beside him. "Okay, you _finally_ woke up. Now get out. Out!" She pushed him out of the room's door and into the hallway, where he stood in his Shukaku pajamas. _Huh, maybe these things are unlucky…_

After a few minutes, the door opened back up to reveal the three kunoichi clad in their day clothes, Haku still blinking sleepily. "Alright, your turn," Sagino said, marching off towards the lobby. Kame hurriedly re-entered the room, got dressed, and grabbed a breakfast bar from his pack, then walked down into the lobby. Standing there already were Deihaka and Senshiko, abnormally close to one another and both seemingly nursing extreme hangovers.

Miriki and Keikiro were just walking out the door, and Kame didn't want to intrude on whatever was happening between his sensei and the Valley jonin, so he opted to walk over to Gunaji. He, Haku, and Sagino were having a conversation that Kame caught the tail end of. Sagino was gesturing towards Haku and saying, "Come on, bro, back me up here. She needs a new coat."

Kame looked over at the offending piece of clothing. It was a bit too small for her, and patched in places. _She was wearing it five years ago in the Kazekage's vision…_ _It was too big for her then._ _Still, it probably has a hell of a lot of sentimental value to her if she's had it for that long…_ Haku looked self-consciously down at her coat and spoke awkwardly. "I… I like this coat, I kinda just want-"

Sagino just talked over the other girl. "Look, how about we go to a clothing store, and if you still want to keep it, then you totally can!" Haku seemed okay with that prospect, and so Sagino dragged her off, leaving Gunaji and Kame standing next to one another.

"So… do you want to head off to a training field…?" Kame offered.

"What? Oh, yeah, sure… I'm sorry that my sister hauled off your teammate just because she wants an excuse to go clothes-shopping." Kame smiled, thinking, _S_ _o that's why…_

He and Gunaji stepped out onto the street and, through asking directions from several of the Leaf's friendlier residents, made their way to the practice fields. On the way there they drew stares just like they had the day before. _This must be a very tight-knit community if outsiders draw this much attention,_ Kame considered. _Either that, or they're suspicious of ninja not in Hidden Leaf uniform, which is perfectly reasonable._

They chose one of the unoccupied practice fields and stood next to one another, Gunaji pulling out a few shuriken and taking practice throws at one of the targets. He was surprisingly good at it for someone whose ninjutsu technique basically invalidated the need for projectile weaponry. Kame pulled out a large sheet of extra paper and an inkwell, preparing himself to make a new batch of paperbombs. _If I run out tomorrow, then there's going to be a huge problem._

Once they'd settled, Gunaji broke the silence. "I've spent a lot of time studying kekkeigenkai, and I know enough about the Sharingan to see that she's not your average user."

"No?" This was news to Kame.

"Yeah, she's… well, there are two possibilities. The first is that she's unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan, which is ridiculous at her age and also would blind her unless she took the eyes from another living Uchiha. Given the lack of other living Uchiha, I think it's safe to rule that one out." Kame nodded. "Therefore, the second possibility is that she's just an incredibly powerful user of the basic Sharingan. The normal Sharingan has a visual component and a hypnotic component, and I think that she's using an enhanced version of the hypnotic component in order to freeze us."

Kame nodded. "Okay…?"

"Therefore, I think I know how to… well, not beat her, but I know a weakness. The Sharingan, apparently, drains a huge amount of chakra, and she has to have it out to sustain the paralyzing effect. Also, if she closes her eyes, you're unparalyzed briefly, so if you can look away in the split second she spends blinking, you can get out." _Those are some incredibly difficult to exploit weaknesses,_ Kame thought.

 _I guess I should spill what I know, huh?_ He turned towards Gunaji, hands still robotically grabbing, writing on, and then infusing chakra into the paperbombs. "My teammate, Miriki, has a visual kekkegenkai called- wait, what am I saying, he explained it to you already. Anyway, he says that Naruko is incredibly insecure about her skills and is terrified of losing, which explains a lot of her behavior.

"She's also demonstrated herself to be a bit unstable, so I think another way of getting to her could be through taunting or embarrassing her in any way. In front of the gathered ninja, in such a public setting, it's practically guaranteed to make her lose her cool."

Gunaji nodded, suddenly looking thoughtful. "She also uses fire style, so if you have water release…"

Kame shook his head. "Nope, wind and fire."

Gunaji grimaced. "I got earth, and that's it."

Kame sighed. "What about her teammates? The Senju guy, Kakuzen, he has Wood Release…" _That shouldn't be possible,_ Kame thought. _I thought only Hashirama Senju had access to that kekkeigenkai._ "Anyway, he's pretty good with it for defense and offense."

Gunaji shrugged. "But you have fire release, so…"

Kame frowned. "But you don't…" He thought for a moment, and then sighed and reached into his pack. "Here, I have something for you." He grabbed all three of yesterday's Firebombs, handing them to Gunaji. "I made these; they have fire chakra instead of normal chakra in them. If you end up against him, use them."

Gunaji reached for them, but snapped his arm back. "No, I can't… It's your strength, if I were to win because of it…"

"Just take it." Kame pushed towards Gunaji. "You helped us with information before, so just accept my help now."

The other boy started to accept them grudgingly, but them seemed to change his mind and shake his head. "No. Thank you for the offer, but it's meant to be a test of my abilities one-on-one. I can't accept."

Kame nodded, unsure whether to be impressed by the other boy's conviction or insulted, finally turning his attention to the last member of the first-place team. "What about Sureki Hyuga? Haku dealt with him pretty easily, but that's because-" _I can't just tell people about her weakness,_ Kame chided himself. "She has a great matchup with him."

The Valley genin just shrugged. "He's a taijutsu specialist who doesn't seem to have any speed specialties. Worst-case, he knows how to use rotation, but even then I'll just wear him down from a range."

The two lapsed back into silence, but that was quickly shattered by a familiar voice from behind them. "Oh, come on, that's selling me a little bit short, isn't it?"

Kame was on his feet in an instant, holding his brush like a weapon, while Gunaji had rolled backwards and assumed a taijutsu stance. Standing a few feet away was Sureki Hyuga, who was wearing a weird flat white bodysuit and holding an exaggerated pouting expression. "I mean, you guys barely traded like two sentences. Writing me off so quickly?"

Kame opened his mouth but froze, unsure if he should apologize, trash-talk, or walk away. Gunaji seemed equally confused, so it was Sureki who eventually broke the awkward silence. "Aww, c'mon guys, I'm just kidding. Good job getting through the gate yesterday!"

Kame peered at him suspiciously. "Thanks…? You guys did alright as well…"

The Hyuga sighed. "Right, you guys probably think Naruko's representative of the attitudes of all us Leaf ninja, eh?" Without waiting for an answer, he smiled and stepped forward, offering his hand to them. "My name's Sureki Hyuga, and I promise that I'm not as aggressive as you probably think I am."

Kame took the hand, realizing that most of his memories of the Leaf genin were of him restraining a pissed-off Naruko. _Maybe he's nice_ , he considered, while saying "Nice to meet you. I'm Kame Hakiara, I'm from the Hidden Sand, and this is-"

"Gunaji Kokuseki. Hidden Valley." Gunaji dropped his guard but didn't fully loosen up.

Sureki shrugged. "Well, you two seem to have found your way into my usual practice field. Mind sharing it?" Kame shook his head, but internally he was perplexed. _Is this guy seriously going to practice right next to us? Where we can see his moves?_

The Hyuga's pale eyes suddenly hardened, veins appearing around them, and then his face twisted into a smile and he waved to somebody walking up the hill. "Lee-sensei! It's good to see you!"

 _Metal Lee is coming, too?_ Kame stood up, packing up his paperbombs and trying to see what the other boy's Byakugan-enhanced eyes had picked out. After a few seconds, he finally landed on it and gasped, all previous training forgotten. _That's… that's really him, this time!_

An elderly Rock Lee was running up the hill in the Lee clan's green bodysuit, moving again with speed and agility far beyond his years like Shira had. In appearance he had to be nearing seventy, wrinkles spreading on his face (although his hair was still a deep jet-black), but his movements were those of a far, far younger man. For the first time since his arrival, Kame truly realized how old his idols were. While Gaara and Naruto didn't look their age- _m_ _aybe because of the tailed beasts_ , Kame theorized- and Sakura also looked middle-aged, Kankuro, Sasuke, and now Rock Lee were clearly far into their elderly years.

It shook Kame a little bit to realize that he might be part of the last generation of genin to share the world with the legendary strongest generation of ninja that had fought the Fourth Shinobi World War.

His melancholy was broken when Rock Lee replied, smiling and waving back to Sureki. "It is good to see you as well, Sureki! You appear to have arrived early for our lesson… who are these people with you?"

Kame, after clamming up last night, decided that he had to learn to treat even well-known ninja like the humans they were. He cleared his throat, starting to formulate a response, but Sureki beat him to it. "This is Kame, and this is Gunaji. They're Sand and Valley genin who made it through the first two stages of the chunin exams!"

Rock Lee nodded. "Are they here to learn the secrets of the Power of Youth?"

Sureki chuckled nervously. "No, I don't think so, sensei… in fact-"

Kame interrupted the other boy. "How long is your lesson?"

"Umm… we should be done by… twelve-ish. Why?" Sureki appeared confused.

"Because I have a friend who is the pupil of Shira." At the sound of his old friend's name, Rock Lee turned sharply to face Kame. "And I think she'd really love to meet the man that her sensei is always talking about."

"Oh, okay…" Sureki clearly didn't know who Shira was, but he was good-natured enough to smile it off. "Sure thing. For now, though, I'm gonna make the most out of my four hours." Sureki assumed a ready stance, and Rock Lee did the same. Kame pulled back out his paperbomb-making supplies, absentmindedly returning to his task while the Leaf's taijutsu master and his apprentice sparred at lightning speed.

Right off the bat, Kame could tell that in terms of speed Sureki was nowhere near Haku. The boy's movements, while quick, were still at a snail-like pace when compared to the wickedly fast attacks of his teammate. However, the frail-looking boy seemed to make up for it with extreme skill and perfect technique. Minimalist movements decreased the necessary amount of speed to the point that he could keep up with the godlike Rock Lee.

The green-clad ex-jonin, however, was a completely different story. His movements were faster and stronger Haku's, maybe even faster than Shira's. _So this is how he made jonin-rank without any ninjutsu or taijutsu,_ thought Kame, _h_ _e's a monster._ Sureki's extreme skill was no match for Lee's brute physical prowess, but the elder ninja was pulling his blows. Every time he would have landed a hit, he stopped millimeters away from his student and then returned to a neutral stance. Each time this happened, he'd also give the Hyuga a bit of advice on how to improve his taijutsu.

Kame also took the opportunity to note something he'd only recently been clued in on- the _stances_ of the two combatants. His minimal study into taijutsu hadn't mentioned much about them, but recently from Shira and Haku he'd been clued into the fact that apparently each village had specialized taijutsu techniques developed and passed down the generations. Some required weapons, while others made use of secret jutsu or kekkeigenkai or chakra-enhancement methods or any other of a wide variety of possibilities.

The stance Haku used was one developed by Shira himself called the Desert Wind, and it specialized in sweeping attacks and constant motion to maintain momentum, with every strike or dash flowing into another. It was a strong contrast to both the stances of the fighters before him now- while they shared a base similarity, it was clear that Rock Lee's moves were far more focused on heavy swings and direct attacks to inflict blunt physical damage, while Sureki's movements were tailored to his kekkeigenkai and mostly aimed for quick barrages of glancing blows and open-palm strikes.

This went on for hours. Kame ran low on chakra and had to stop making bombs, but by that point his stores were well replenished. He had thirty normal paperbombs, ten weakened ones, ten firebombs, ten windbombs, and three smokebombs, likely more than enough for the maximum of four fights that he'd be asked to participate in. After four hours, Sureki and Lee disengaged from their sparring, the former clearly winded and panting.

"Excellent work today, Sureki! The Power of Youth flows ever stronger through your veins, and each day you grow closer to Neji in strength!" Rock Lee and Sureki both bowed, and then they turned to face Kame. "Now then, where is this friend you speak of?" Rock Lee raised one bushy black eyebrow.

"Uhh… she went out clothes-shopping, so… do either of you know of any shinobi clothing stores in the Leaf?" The two Leaf ninja shared a look, nodded to each other very seriously, and then wordlessly led the way back down the trail and into the city. Kame quickly shoved his materials into his bag and darted off in pursuit, but Gunaji waved goodbye.

"I think I'm gonna stay here and practice some more." Gunaji waved him off and Kame shrugged, turning to follow the strange pair of Leaf shinobi down into their village.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Leaf):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Genin Evaluation Data: Sureki Hyuga**

Ninjutsu: B  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _Kid's got a great grasp of water jutsu, plus some complicated Gentle Fist techniques._

Genjutsu: C  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _It's nothing special, but he's capable enough._

Taijutsu: A  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _Kid's practically a prodigy of the Gentle Fist, plus extensive training in other techniques on top of it._

Appearance: _Age fifteen. Near-average height (5'6"), average weight (117 lbs), long brown hair and pale, pupil-less eyes. Typically wears flowing white clothing of the Hyuga clan or a white bodysuit beneath Leaf genin vest and headband._

Attitude: _Works well enough with others since academy days, does not show evidence of superiority complex common in heirs of noble clans. No apparent issues in coordination with teammates despite possible clan strife._

History: _Raised as heir to the Hyuga main family, joined academy in following with tradition and passed after one year. Received high marks from instructors in most categories and did not have any negative incidents on record. After assignment to a squad with Senju and Uchiha heirs, passed a year as genin without attempting chunin exams for reasons unknown, despite completing missions with an extremely high success rate._


	15. Rolling Thunder

Kame had to jog to catch up to Sureki and Rock Lee, but eventually he managed to close the gap. Still silent, they walked straight into the downtown district and ended up in front of a store called 'Shinobi Utility Wear'. _Huh, that's a pretty… direct… name,_ thought Kame, but shrugged and entered anyway. Inside, he saw a wide variety of bandages, vests, belts, pouches, and anything else a ninja would ever need to wear.

Towards the back of the shop, in the coat section, Kame spotted Haku, Sagino, Miriki, and Keikiro admiring a few designs. "Hey, Haku!"

She turned to wave back, but then she caught sight of Rock Lee and flashed across the store in the blink of an eye. "Is… are you… Rock Lee…?" Kame was reminded of his own reaction when he'd seen Naruto and Sasuke.

Rock Lee nodded. "Kame tells me that you are the heir to Shira's Nindo?"

"Yes!" Haku was breathing quickly, staring at Rock Lee like she was trying to figure out if he was real. "Shira-sensei has told me so much about you, Lee-senpai!" She bowed a few times. "I am beyond honored to finally meet you- you are my hero!"

Rock Lee slowly broke out into a smile. "Shira was a great ninja, so you must also be a great successor! What led to your meeting?"

Haku, for once, didn't seem to mind telling another person about her struggles. "I… since I was little, I couldn't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu whatsoever, so I focused on my taijutsu. When my chakra couldn't escape my body, I guess it turned inwards and strengthened me, so taijutsu was always my strong suit…" She turned and nodded at Kame. "Kame spoke with the Lord Kazekage about my situation, and he told us about Shira. After that, we went to Shira's village and convinced him to return to the Sand."

Rock Lee nodded. "You are lucky to have found such a loyal comrade, and such a great sensei! How is Shira?"

Kame glanced at Haku. "He's… he's doing pretty well, considering… well, his wife, Yome, died. We found him in mourning and he's decided that he'll pass his nindo and secret techniques onto Haku before he... ah..." Kame wasn't sure how to avoid being offensive. "Kicks the bucket." _Shit, that's pretty callous_.

Rock Lee's face fell at the news that his friend had lost a companion. "I am sad that he lost Yome- but also glad that you could give him a purpose once again."

Haku gasped. "Oh, yeah! I remember him saying that if I made it into the final round of the chunin exams, he'd come to watch! You and him could meet back up." That idea perked up the jonin immediately. "Oh, he also asked me to have you look at a stance he taught me, called the Desert Wind. Shira said that it's his own personal adaptation on the your sensei's Dancing Leaf stance."

Rock Lee looked overjoyed at that idea. "Yes! I would love to see this 'Desert Storm'! But first, I notice that you are in this clothing store, which means that you are searching for something better to wear." _Oh, no,_ Kame cringed. _I think I know where this one's going._ "May I recommend my clan's secret, breathable-yet-protective Super Ninja Bodysuit!" He somehow produced a green jumpsuit out of thin air and waved it in front of Haku.

She opened her eyes wide at the sight of it. "Wow, it's..." she trailed off, obviously not sure what to say. "It's, ah... is it really that amazing?"

He nodded, smile growing even larger. "The fabric used is stretchable, but still thick enough to provide _more_ defense than normal ninja clothing! In addition, the Lee Clan Super Ninja Bodysuit is breathable, decreasing excess sweating, while also allowing maximum flexibility!"

"Wow..." Haku was doing an extremely poor job of feigning excitement. "I'm, uh..." She shot a glance at Kame that clearly said ' _Help_ '.

Kame couldn't bring himself to stop the conversation- it was like watching an out-of-control cart tumbling down a hill. Before Lee could press it any further, though, Miriki interjected. "Hey, I think that's great. All the girls- I mean, I think everyone here could use one!" _Miriki, you son of a- throwing me under the bus just so you can get Sagino and Keikiro into skintight jumpsuits!?_

Kame excluded Haku in that thought intentionally- for some reason, Miriki never flirted with Haku like he did every breathing female within a kilometer radius.

In a plot twist completely out of left field, Rock Lee ended up being the one who saved the day, yanking away the bodysuit and shaking his head. "No, these are only for the ninja who embrace the full Power of Youth like Gai-sensei taught."

Miriki looked crestfallen, stepping away, but Kame breathed a silent sigh of relief. _Maybe next time, pervert_.

Haku seized her opportunity: "Maybe I should, ah, learn more about the Power of Youth before I get my bodysuit?"

Lee contemplated for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, you are right. Sureki earned his, and you should as well. Now, what weight does Shira have you working at?"

"Huh?" Haku looked confused at that question.

"Your leg weights, how heavy are they?"

"What leg weights?"

Rock Lee actually staggered back a step, seemingly horrified at this development. "What!? Shira does not have you working with leg weights yet? This is terrible, I must speak with him as soon as possible- but for now," he turned to the shopkeeper, "I'd like a set of leg weight holders, leg warmers, and the corresponding weights from twenty to fifty pounds!"

The woman nodded once again, retreated into a hidden room, and emerged with the correct items. _How did she doing that? Does she use a jutsu to size these things, or…?_ While Kame pondered the question, Rock Lee walked Haku through equipping and safely using the leg weights. Her leg warmers were black instead of orange, and they fit nicely over her boots. She took a few experimental steps around the shop, shaking her legs a little bit, and then smiled. "Thank you, Lee-senpai!"

Rock Lee nodded. "It is no problem! My mission is to make sure that the Power of Youth explodes forth from everyone that it can, and you are one of the lucky few!" _He's… somehow even more eccentric than his ninja profile made him out to be_ , Kame thought. _Why are all the jonin such strange people?_

Haku pointed out the door. "Now can I show you the stance, Lee?"

"Indeed you can, Haku." Rock Lee and Haku suddenly dashed out the door, presumably towards the training field. Kame was about to tag along when he felt someone grab his shoulder, turning to see that it was Sureki.

"What's the matter?" The Hyuga boy had his byakugan out and seemed… almost worried.

He turned to Kame. "Do you know _how_ Haku lost access to her chakra?"

Kame shook his head. "No, not really. Why? Did you see something?"

Sureki grimaced. "Yeah, and it's… it's bad…" His face was halfway between somber and scared. "Normally, in people like Lee-sensei, you see that their chakra coils are underdeveloped. They just don't have enough chakra to focus any in for jutsu, which even _I_ can see with my Byakugan." _Is his Byakugan weak?_ The way he'd phrased that was strange. "But Haku isn't like that. Instead, I can see something else's chakra forming a seal over most of her tenketsu points. I got a feeling earlier during the fight, but just now I confirmed it: someone definitely, _intentionally_ sealed off her chakra network."

 _What? Did her family do it? How and why…_ Kame's mind raced, but he saw Rock Lee and Haku disappearing around a street corner outside. "This is a lot to think about, but... thanks." He met the boy's pale eyes. "I mean it, sincerely, thank you for telling me. I'll see you later, Sureki!" He jogged off after them.

By the time he caught up, they were already at the practice field and Haku was just finishing with removing her weights. "Okay, Lee-senpai, I'll try to pull the hits, but-"

Rock Lee shook his head furiously. "No! Do not do that, hit me with all of your youthful energy. I will be able to handle it, trust me."

Haku looked worried but nodded, dropping into her Desert Wind stance. She stood with a slightly bent back leg and a straight front one, sideways to her opponent. Her back arm would be pointed away and then bend back to put her hand next to her head, while her front arm went low, almost to her knee.

Lee also assumed a more normal stance, and then Haku blurred forward and swept a leg sideways in the same move that had taken Gunaji out. Lee made no move to block, and after a brief moment of confusion Kame saw why as the attack was only a feint and Haku brought the foot down onto the ground to push herself diagonally past Lee, rolling once into a crouch with her far leg bent almost completely.

As Lee turned, she launched herself back by him again, snagging his arm along the way and leveraging it against her shoulder to lift him from the ground and threaten to roll him over her and slam his back into the ground. Lee brought both legs down into the earth hard enough to crack it and used the impact to flip himself- and Haku- backwards, turning the motion against her and finishing by nearly slamming her headfirst into the ground but relenting at the last moment.

Haku only grinned, vaulted back to her feet, and the fight went on, leaving Kame to just stand still and admire the display of martial talent. Haku seemed like a better match for Lee than Sureki had been, but in all honesty that may just have been Kame's own personal bias coming into play. Half an hour of intense combat passed before Lee dropped his stance and smiled at her, nodding approvingly.

"That is an excellent technique, Haku, and I can see how it came from the style Shira used against me. However, you should not exaggerate your attacks so much- you must find a balance between getting enough power behind them while also not showing your enemies what you're about to do."

Haku nodded. "Thank you, Lee-senpai."

* * *

After Haku and Rock Lee said their goodbyes, Kame couldn't squeeze in any more training with most of his chakra gone, so he opted to simply wander the village. Haku seemed content to come along, leg weights back on, as he explored the place.

They ran into a few other ninja that Kame dimly remembered, but no one that he'd studied extensively. Eventually, the time came for the Kazekage's arrival, which Deihaka had asked them all to be present for, so the pair went to the main gate to stand respectfully before Lord Gaara's entourage. Besides the usual jonin and ANBU guards, Kame noticed several familiar faces in the procession: Kankuro and Shira had come out to watch their apprentices.

Gaara met and publicly shook hands with the Hokage, then the two retired to the Hokage's tower. Shira immediately peeled off and exchanged a few words with Haku, after which they charged off (probably in search of Rock Lee). Kame was left standing next to Miriki, who winced and turned around at the sight of someone coming towards them. The newcomer was tall, black-haired and blue-eyed like Miriki, and wearing a white formal uniform. "Miriki," the man said in an aristocratic voice, "Come here, boy. Your parents have tasked me with making sure that you remain presentable _outside_ of your little ninja games at the very least."

Miriki sighed and turned around. "So, you're my babysitter?"

"Only if you choose to behave like a baby, cousin." _So this is a Kosuki, Miriki's cousin._ The man looked to be seventeen or eighteen, several years older than Miriki. "Come over here, you can't just trample around this foreign town like a vagrant."

Miriki glared but did as he was bid, following the man off towards a much nicer hotel than the inn that they'd stayed in the night before. Kame was now alone- Deihaka had almost immediately peeled off to go chat with Senshiko. _This is getting out of hand; he's lapsing in his duties as our teacher now._ Kame brightened up a bit when he saw Kankuro approach, waving and greeting him. "Master! Welcome to the Hidden Leaf, was your travel okay?"

Kankuro grunted. "It could have been worse. Now, how did the combat test go? Explain to me everything you did with Wasp, now."

Kame nodded, then recounted all of the actions and orders he'd put Wasp through. Kankuro appeared mildly proud when Kame told him about his idea to put the Wind Barrier Jutsu around Wasp, and them rolled his eyes and returned to a disappointed look when informed about how it had ripped off the puppet's wings. At the news that Wasp had actually been rendered nonfunctional, Kankuro breathed out a long sigh. "Kame, if you broke it the first time you used it-"

"Hey, someone _else_ broke it, master. Besides, it couldn't be helped, I used Wasp to shoot them but it turned out to be a shadow clone, and then they broke it with a kunai strike."

"So what you're saying is, it's not your fault because you fell for a Shadow Clone Jutsu…?" Kankuro was completely unimpressed.

Kame coughed awkwardly, seeking a way out from the conversation. "Oh, wait, I still have the broken parts, thought… so…"

"You want me to fix it? Won't you just break it again?" Kankuro crossed his arms and looked at him expectantly.

"I… I…" Kame tried but failed to think of anything he could say to change his Master's mind- but then relaxed once he saw the man laughing. _Oh, he's messing with me…_

"Take me to the inn, Kame. I'll fix it, if only because I want a chance to witness your skill level first-hand." They went to the small inn, where Kankuro used a summoning jutsu to get a toolkit. It only took him about fifteen minutes to fix and then reseal Wasp, after which he departed to stay with the Kazekage. Kame was left alone and found himself wandering back to the practice field absentmindedly.

He stayed there for the rest of the day, working on new jutsu and techniques until the sun was gone from the sky. Eventually, he headed back to the inn and found the other genin fast asleep, settling into his bedroll and laying down to rest among them.

* * *

 _This is it,_ thought Kame as he walked up to the waiting area. _The final test._ All of the qualifying genin now stood on a platform built into the wall of the arena, looking down into the battlefield. The battlefield itself was a circle, probably a hundred meters in diameter, with a large swath covered in trees. A small, artificial stream trickled across it as well- _probably to give some water users a fighting chance,_ Kame considered. The walls of the arena curved upwards and inwards a little bit, and then the observers were above them. _There's probably… what, a couple thousand people? To watch genin matches?_

Up in the stands, there was a smaller balcony that he knew must house at least the Hokage, Kazekage, Raikage, Mizukage, and Kawakage. _I guess it looks good for Gaara that he had both of his teams pass, huh?_ Kame pondered the village's relationships for a moment, as the proctor had yet to appear. _After the Fourth Shinobi World War, there's been a shaky peace between all of the villages, but I still get the feeling that any of them would happily see their rivals wiped out._ Kame remembered meeting Gaara and Naruto in person, and revised his judgement. _Okay, maybe not the Sand or the Leaf, but…_

He'd looked into all the sitting Kage, although some had less readily available information than others. The Kawakage in particular was almost a complete mystery, like several of the smaller villages' Kage- they had survived for many years by flying under the radar, and through a system of mutually assured destruction. _If the Sand attacked the Valley,_ Kame reasoned, _then we'd almost definitely win… but we'd be weakened, and then any of the other Great Villages could come in and destroy us._ _It's what happened to Heat Devil Village, after all._

Eventually, a door opened and a jonin strode out onto the practice field. Kame didn't recognize them, and they weren't wearing any identifiable clan markings or distinctive clothing. All in all, it was a little bit refreshing to see a jonin-level ninja that wasn't a complete nutcase. After the man reached the center of the field, he bellowed out (probably using some sort of voice amplification jutsu) "Greetings, gathered observers and shinobi! Welcome to the culminating final of this year's chunin exam!"

A scattered round of applause died out, and he continued. "The tournament will follow a bracket system, where the winners of four smaller pools will battle in twos and then finally the two best shinobi will fight one another!" He stepped back and made a few handsigns, then a visible image flickered into being on the ground before him. _Is he some sort of… leadership specialist? What's with all the presentational jutsu?_ "Without further ado, here is the lineup for the exams!"

Kame peered anxiously at the image. Pool one was comprised of two matches: One between Haku and Zandeina, and one between Sureki and Kakuzen. The winners of those smaller ones would fight one another. Pool two's matchups were Gunaji vs Sagino and Tesute vs Kosu. _Of all the luck, the twins end up against each other in the first round?_ Kame wondered what that match would be like, and if Gunaji would go all-out against his own sister. In the other half, pool three consisted of Naruko vs Keikiro and Kame vs Genji. _I'm probably going to end up fighting Naruko early on, then…_ Kame readied himself mentally for that.

Pool four, the final pool, had Miriki vs Rakuyo, and then Dako alone. _There's only fifteen, so I guess he just gets a pass on the first round?_ The spectators clapped with each revealed name, and then the projection split into four separate copies and spread out onto the walls, spaced equidistantly around the battlefield. The proctor turned towards the balcony where the genin stood and called out, "Haku of the Hidden Sand, and Zandeina Ryukana of the Hidden Cloud! Please descend and prepare for battle!"

 _Here we go,_ Kame worried. He turned and tried to give Haku as reassuring of a smile as he could manage at the moment, watching her disappear down the steps. Zandeina chose a different tactic and simply strode straight down the arena wall, as if to reinforce the skill gap between her and Haku. _Wait… Ryukana… I remember where I heard that name now! This is bad…_ Kame's eyes inadvertently shot over to the Kages' box, where the fifth Raikage, Darui _Ryukana_ , must have sat many times during his reign.

 _Haku's up against Hidden Cloud royalty… and her ace in the hole is a lightning technique, but she's up against another lightning specialist. In fact, that blue lightning I saw during stage two was probably the famous Storm Release kekkeigenkai…_ Kame bit his lip nervously, considering Haku's situation. _With no jutsu, she has to close in to close range, but from what I've seen Zandeina is great at close-quarters incapacitation._ Standing there facing each other, they seemed like polar opposites: Haku, pale-skinned and wearing bandages with a top and skirt (and no leg weights, thankfully), stood with a distinctive taijutsu stance, ready for combat. Zandeina, on the other hand, was covered head to toe in her heavy dark cloak and stood leaning to one side, apparently uninterested in the task at hand.

"Alright, contestants… Go!" The proctor shouted the word and then leaped back, leaving the space between the two kunoichi empty- but not for long. Almost immediately, Zandeina shouted, "Storm Style: Crackling Doom!" _So the voice amplification jutsu affects the contestants as well, then,_ Kame realized. The distinctive blue lightning streamed forward from her fingers and closed in on Haku, who was forced to dart backwards awkwardly. At a distance of about twenty meters, the lightning fizzled out. _So she has a maximum range that Haku can try to avoid…_

Haku continued moving backwards until she was near the wall, and then entered a long dash going clockwise around the edge of the arena. _She's not generating any offense… yet._ Kame approved the choice, _I_ _t's a good idea to get your opponent to reveal as many cards as possible before you tip your own hand._

Zandeina growled and threw out another of her storm attacks, but at the range Haku was at she was able to evade it with ease. Finally, Haku reached the treeline and then leapt up into the leaves, concealing herself from view. _If her win condition is to close to melee range, and Zandeina doesn't know that, then she might have a chance for a sneak attack. But… that's pretty hopeful. This is a shinobi, and an attack from the trees is almost a staple._

As he'd assumed, Zandeina remained cautious to enter the treeline, stalking around the perimeter and searching for a glimpse of her opponent. A few times, she unleashed storm release attacks, but nothing hit and the match remained a stalemate. The stalemate broke, though, when she made the mistake of stopping to remove her hooded cloak. Haku was upon her in a millisecond, throwing out a vicious uppercut- which crunched into the large rock Zandeina had replaced herself with. "Substitution!" The rock broke in half from the raw power Haku had hit it with, drawing a gasp from the audience, but the Cloud kunoichi was unimpressed. "Storm Style: Laser Circus!"

A halo of lightning appeared around her hands and then shot forward towards Haku. Haku tried to dodge but Zandeina turned the beams to track her target, closing and landing a direct hit on Haku. Haku froze and shuddered in place as she was shocked for a good second and a half, until Zandeina released the jutsu and started to walk forward, removing her cloak fully. Underneath, her resemblance to the Raikage was noticeable; dark skin and light hair framing an unusually pretty face that was twisted in derision. "You should probably just stay down, Sand girl."

However, Kame knew that Haku would never knew that, and was unsurprised (if still afraid) when his teammate shakily rose to her feet. "No."

"Hmm," Zandeina replied, "Pity. Storm Style: Tyrant Whip!" A long stream of lightning extended from her grip, stretching out to maybe ten feet. The Cloud genin spun it around and snapped it a few times in the way that made clear her skill with the weapon. "Come on, little clanless girl, show me what you're made of."

A tiny hint of anger flickered across Haku's face, but it was quickly masked as she dropped back into her stance wordlessly.

Her opting not to respond seemed to irk Zandeina, as the Cloud kunoichi hissed in rage and began her assault. She swung the whip horizontally forward and it extended far longer than it should have, forcing Haku to duck underneath the arc it formed in the air above her. Expertly, Zandeina pulled the whip back in and snapped it forward again, this time in a straight line, and Haku once again had to jump back to dodge it.

 _Oh, crap,_ Kame thought, realizing what the Cloud shinobi's plan was. _Haku's in a bad spot-_ and she was, because she'd been forced backwards by the constant attacks until she was up against the arena wall. _Now she can only dodge in three directions._ Zandeina smirked and shouted, "Storm Style: Crackling Doom!" The jutsu spread out in a flat cone before her, covering any attempts to move to the left or right. Haku was forced to leap straight up and over the attack, but helpless in midair as she was, Zandeina was free to swing the whip at her.

This time, it made solid contact with her leg, and a vicious yank brought Haku crashing down into the earth. The Sand kunoichi made a valiant effort to stand, but Zandeina pulled on the whip once again, taking out Haku's feet from under her. "Storm Style: Thundercloud Execution!" _That doesn't sound good._ Kame started forward a little bit when he saw the gathering of storm chakra over where Haku lay prone. After a few seconds, all of it struck down towards the ground, but Haku rolled out of the way in the nick of time. The spot where she'd been was left as a smoking black blast crater. _If she takes a direct hit from that, then she's done for,_ thought Kame. _Come on Haku, find a way out of that whip._

Haku appeared to share his line of thinking, glancing down at the lightning whip attached to her leg. Then a strange smile appeared on her face and, still prone on the ground, she kicked her leg up and towards her. Zandeina failed to react in time, got ripped forward and flung over to where Haku lay, and upon her arrival was met with a brutal kick to the midsection that sent her flying out into the open air. She lost her grip on the whip and it spluttered out, freeing Haku.

With her opponent now in midair, Haku grinned and launched herself skyward, spinning forwards and over the Cloud ninja while axing her leg down in an attack Kame had seen many times before. The first strike connected and sent Zandeina streaking down onto the earth, but as Haku descended after her, she seemed to regain enough lucidity to make a series of seals. "Lightning Style: Thunder Cage!" A web of lightning crackled to life around her on the ground, and when Haku's second attack came down onto it, the younger girl was blasted back and rolled to a halt ten meters away.

When the two ninja took to their feet, Haku was clearly the worse for the wear, breathing heavily and marked up with ash and dirt from the attacks she'd suffered. Zandeina, on the other hand, seemed almost pristine. Her white skirt beneath her Cloud vest was completely clean, and she stood just as confidently as she had when the fight started. However, what _had_ changed was her expression. _She's… is she like Naruto, or Tetsute? Angry about people she considers 'weak' holding their own against her?_

"Alright, _Haku_ ," Zandeina spat. "You've had your little fun running around. If you don't use a jutsu, I'm going to hurt you." Haku opened and closed her mouth, glancing briefly towards the crowds of people watching and murmuring. _She doesn't want to say that she can't do it in front of all these strangers, especially not when she's being judged for promotion to chunin rank._ "What? Am I not worth your goddamn jutsu!? I'll make you regret treating me like a joke!"

Zandeina flashed through a long series of seals, and the air around her started crackling with electricity. Finally, she slammed her palms together and said, in a low and hateful voice far more terrifying than her yells, "Storm Style: Breath of the Lightning Dragon." The chakra condensed over her head, forming into the shape of a massive dragon's head. The jaw opened, and then out poured a huge wave of storm release lightning, tearing across the ground and blasting the area where Haku had stood a split second before. She'd managed to dodge in time, but only barely, and it was clear some of the energy had clipped her leg as she stood shakily.

 _At least she survived the_ \- but before Kame could finish that thought, another burst of storm chakra surged forward and Haku's last-second roll to avoid it was once again barely enough, and this time her right boot bore a scorch mark and smoked faintly. _Is this a time-based jutsu? How long can Haku keep this up?_

One more blast forced Haku up and over it, but she was forced to turn her landing into yet another roll to avoid a fourth, transitioning to a sprint out of the path of the fifth and then diving beneath the sixth. It was clearly starting to take its toll as she got visibly shakier with each dodge, and took more damage as her reactions slowed with each subsequent swerve. It was a vicious cycle, as each bit of damage inflicted slowed her, causing her to be clipped a little bit more by the next blast, taking more damage. It was only a matter of time before one hit her straight-on.

Zandeina paused her assault, giving a panting and singed Haku time to recover as she ranted- "Had enough? Come on, you little bitch, hit me with something. Lightning, Fire, Water, I don't care. I won't be disrespected like this in front of my father!"

Haku coughed out, "I'm not-" but Zandeina didn't let her finish, starting into another round of lightning attacks. _How is Haku still standing?_ wondered Kame. A little part of him whispered that she should just give in, fall over and lose the match, but the majority of his mind was simply torn- _I don't want to see her hurt by losing in the first round, but I also can't watch her in pain like this._ _This Zandeina girl is…"_

Suddenly, Kosu was standing beside him. "I'm sorry."

Kame ripped his eyes from the battle to glance at the Cloud genin quizzically. "What?"

The thin boy looked at the field sadly. "Zandeina's always been told by everyone around her that she'd be the strongest. Being put up on a pedestal like that, especially when she ended up actually _being_ a prodigy... well, it convinced her that she's more important than anyone else." Another blast of lightning from the battlefield lit up the bitter expression that Kosu wore. "She used to be less… like this, but that was back when everyone treated her like a princess. Eventually, we got put into a genin squad with Torino-sensei, who treated her just like he treated everyone else. They fought all the time, and she's just been getting angrier and angrier over the last couple of years. He finally agreed that we were ready for the chunin exams this year, and she sees this as her chance to escape him."

Kame turned away from the other genin. "So she's just an angry, spoiled brat?" He noticed the other boy preparing some retort and spoke right over him: "Why're you saying this to me?"

"What?"

"This is a fight in the chunin exams, yeah? They're obviously going to attack each other with jutsu. I'm not _hurt_ by seeing this," Kame lied, "But it's strange that you feel the need to apologize to me about it."

"But your friend is being hurt," Kosu muttered.

If Kame weren't incredibly worried about Haku, he might have smiled at the Cloud boy's confusion. "Aren't you a shinobi? This is what we signed up for, and-" a particularly vicious blast of lightning from the dragon's maw forced Kame to blink a few times to clear the spots from his vision and drew his attention back to the fight, where Haku was slowed enough that she'd taken a direct hit to her leg and was limping. "You don't need to explain yourself for fighting in the chunin exams," Kame finished, partially to himself as he made peace with what he'd done to Genji and Tetsute two days prior. _Wounds heal_ , he thought, _And going all-out in these exams is not anything to worry about_.

Kosu set his mouth in a line, seemingly lost for words. The battle had progressed further, and Haku was seemingly making her way _towards_ Zandeina, dodging diagonally forward from each bolt as she closed the gap. _Why is she making the dodging harder on herself by decreasing the distance?_ Kame gripped the railing tightly, his morbid curiosity forcing him to watch every round of Haku's torment. _If I end up against Zandeina, I'll… I'll…_

Zandeina finally let up once more, and Haku sagged with one hand on her knee, ten meters away from her opponent. "Huh. You really thought you could do it without jutsu right up until the end, didn't you? You _idiot_. You just _had_ to make sure that I didn't look good, didn't you? Hopefully my-" She stopped talking when Haku slowly but surely raised herself back into her Desert Wind stance. "What the hell- what _are_ you? How can you still move?"

Kame's knuckles went white as Haku took measured steps forward, getting close enough that she'd have no chance to dodge reactively. _If she takes any more, she'll…_ He couldn't bring himself to say the words out loud, but the urge to shout at her to stop, to ask her to forfeit, was stronger than he'd like to admit. _What's going on with me?_ _Why can't I stand to see her hurt?_

Haku closed to five meters and the dragon's mouth sparked dangerously, threatening to end the battle right then and there. Zandeina let out a long hiss of frustration, seemingly unwilling to bring the battle to a close while she still thought Haku was holding back- "What the hell is wrong with you?" she cried, a tiny hint of desperation entering her voice. "Why wont you just-"

Haku interrupted her in a voice surprisingly strong despite what her body had suffered. "You want me to use elemental jutsu to fight you? Fine." She shifted her body into a new stance, straightening up with elbows close to her ribs and fists raised in front of her, resting her weight on the balls of her feet. "Rolling Thunder!" The familiar aura of lightning energy crackled to life around her, causing Zandeina to step back a little bit. In his surprise that his teammate had held this back, Kame barely noticed something else- at the edges of her eyes, flecks of black extended into thin tendrils that snaked out from the edges and slowly arced in towards her pupils. _Is that her kekkeigenkai?_

"Lightning?" Zandeina spat, apparently sated by the fact that Haku had used an elemental technique. "It won't help you."

The pent-up surge of lightning in the dragon's mouth exploded towards Haku, who made no movement to dodge- in fact, she stepped directly _into_ it.

The bright blue-white chakra seemed to arc into her, but rather than electrocute her, it instead _slowed_ as it neared her body, blurring and dissolving from angry crackling lightning into a softer light that sank into her skin. Haku took the full force of Zandeina's attack head-on, three full seconds of raw energy that should have scorched her skin, fried her nervous system, and launched her flying- but instead, she didn't even slow down as even the extra tendrils that would have missed her seemed to magnetically attract in towards her back, proving no more harmful than the rest of the attack.

"Impossible," Zandeina whispered, as Haku's final step took put the two right next to each other.

Haku's response came in the form of a quick jabbing punch directly into the Cloud kunoichi's chest, which surged with elecricity and seemed to stun Zandeina briefly, just long enough for the next attack from Haku's other arm to also find its mark.

The two blows were just the beginning as Haku wove strike into strike, almost seeming like Sureki in the way that her quick attacks without any exaggerated buildup didn't individually deal much damage, but each chained into the other and shocked Zandeina enough that she had no chance to gather any responding attack. The barrage of blows each knocked her stumbling back but before she could fall Haku had already swept by her, catching the Cloud girl's arm and levering it in the same attack she'd used on Rock Lee to flip her opponent over her shoulder and slam her back directly into the earth with a small explosion of Lightning chakra.

Then Haku wound up a punch and brought her fist sailing down towards Zandeina's head, this time unleashing an impact and a resulting blast of electricity that kicked up a wide cloud of dust, hiding the results of the blow from view for a few long seconds.

When it cleared, Haku was standing haggardly, all traces of lightning stance or kekkegenkai gone, her fist in the middle of a small crater in the ground mere inches away from Zandeina's head. The Cloud girl was too far gone after the repeated shocks to even react, but the blow- which could very well have caved in her skull- caused the proctor to call the match: "Winner by knockout: Haku!"

The arena erupted into confused cheering, quiet at first but growing in volume as more and more people fully realized what had happened. Kosu's jaw dropped, and he sagged a little bit into the railing of the balcony. "What… but… with only one jutsu, she…"

 _I think I'll let him keep thinking that she's only half-trying…_ Kame smiled wide, watching Haku walk off of the field waving at the crowds, something about the way she smiled in the moment bringing him a surge of joy as well. It was nearly enough to cause him to forget about the mystery of her kekkeigenkai and the looming threat of Tetsute and Naruko-

Nearly enough, but not quite.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Cloud):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Genin Evaluation Data: Zandeina Ryukana**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Jonin-sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Prodigal mastery of Storm Style kekkeigenkai makes her chunin-level already in ninjutsu._

Genjutsu: B  
\- Jonin-sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Decent grasp of casting and dispelling genjutsu, but rarely opts to use them._

Taijutsu: A  
\- Jonin-sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Above-average physique combined with martial skills and specialized techniques make her chunin-level in taijutsu as well._

Appearance: _Age sixteen, average height (5'6"), dark skin, pale blonde hair and bright green eyes. Typically wears a heavy brown cloak over standard Cloud kunoichi wear, vest, and headband._

Attitude: _Troubling inability to work with others from an early age due to superiority complex and dismissive tendencies, bad enough to cause serious strife on her first genin team. Second genin team has had fewer conflicts, perhaps indicating a lessening of these issues._

History: _After an impressive record through her childhood and the academy, progress stalled out for a year, as her first genin team disbanded due to vicious personality conflicts. Second team was formed with two more cohesive personalities (Dako Nakimoka, Kosu Iburi) and issues mostly subsided, but chunin exams were passed over for another year despite this and despite a high mission success rate._


	16. Dishonorable Conduct

When Haku emerged onto the viewing platform, Kame was the first to greet her. "Haku, that was amazing! You didn't tell me that the stance changes let you _absorb_ the chakra of that element!" He knew it was her kekkeigenkai and not the stance, but the lie came easily to his lips to keep the surrounding genin- and her- from knowing the truth of the incident.

She smiled a little bit and looked away awkwardly. "I… I didn't know it either."

Miriki stepped over, holding his hand up for a high-five. "Nice one, Haku- but did you have to hit that Zandeina girl in the face? I mean, you ruined a perfectly good-"

Kame put his hand over the Kosuki boy's face and muffled the rest of that sentence, replacing it with one of his own: "You're fighting the winner of this next battle." Haku nodded and they both turned to face the ring as the Proctor reassumed his position at the center.

"And now, the next match! That's right, folks, this next fight is between the Gentle Fist master of our own Hidden Leaf, Sureki Hyuga, and the boy who uses the very same technique as the first Hokage, Kakuzen Uzumaki!" The crowd gave a scattered round of applause as the two Leaf teammates walked out onto the field and assumed their stances. _I hope Sureki wins this, and not just because it's a better matchup for_ Haku, mused Kame. _He seems like a genuinely good person._

Kame's train of thought was derailed by noticing that Kakuzen was even younger than he was. _Has he really been a genin for a full year_ _?_ He wondered if maybe he'd been putting too much thought into Naruko and not enough into her younger teammate, because with Wood Release, a Byakugan, _and_ apparently Uzumaki blood in his veins, Kakuzen might be even more gifted in his genetic inheritance than Naruko was. Kame felt a brief pulse of envy, as he usually did when confronted by people who had kekkeigenkai- it seemed unfair that they'd been given such an advantage for no reason other than being born to the right parents.

The thoughts left his mind when Kenken's voice blared out: "Let's get ready to rumble! Who will win in this epic showdown of wood versus muscle?" The proctor threw a hand with three fingers extended into the air to accentuate his countdown. "Three! Two! One! Go!"

Vastly different from the slow, ramping battle that had just gone down, the two Leaf genin immediately laid into each other with everything they had. Kakuzen threw out a hand and three huge tendrils of wood pierced the earth behind him, shooting forward towards Sureki. The older boy assumed the distinctive Gentle Fist stance and then shouted, "Eight Trigrams: Rotation!" He released a huge amount of chakra and spun rapidly, destroying the wooden tendrils as they came at him. When the rotation ended, he stood completely unharmed- but Kakuzen was standing halfway across the arena, already preparing another jutsu.

"Wood Style: Bark Fortress Jutsu!" Similar to Tetsute, he slammed his palm into the ground under his feet. The earth rumbled briefly, and then a wooden structure rose up and formed into a tower ten meters high, with thorny spikes on the flat walls. Kakuzen stood on a flat platform on top of it, eyes fully veined and pale with the distinct, unique touch of the Byakugan.

Sureki growled and ran through a set of his own handsigns. "Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu!" From the river behind him, three forms coalesced into exact copies of him, who charged forward towards Kakuzen's tower. The four Surekis fanned out until they surrounded it, one for each side of the square building, and then all attacked at once.

Before they even came close, Kakuzen released another attack: "Wood Style: Rootspike Jutsu!" Like during the second stage, the ground started releasing huge wooden spikes underneath the Sureki clones- but they dodged, very easily, perhaps aided in seeing the underground movements by their Byakugan, and closed the distance to approach the tower. However, off-balance from the dodges, they were helpless to avoid it when the tower's small thorns suddenly shot out, extending great lengths and impaling them all. The real Sureki managed to deflect it with a Gentle Fist strike, but now he was well in range of Kakuzen's attacks and still forced to dodge the rootspikes.

Kakuzen spoke to his teammate in a surprisingly stiff and measured voice. "You may have beaten me in the past, but your victories against me end here, Uncle." _Uncle!?_ "I've surpassed you. I do not wish to harm you any further than I must, but I will not shy away from such actions if my hand is forced." The formal language seemed _off_ coming from someone so young, but weighing more heavily on Kame's mind was the fact that Sureki was somehow Kakuzen's uncle despite the three year (at maximum) age difference between them.

Sureki rolled to the side to avoid another rootspike, seemingly ignoring his teammate, and then assumed the Gentle Fist stance once again. "Have you really forgotten all our sparring, nephew? You might have been born with a stronger Byakugan… but there are some things that you're taught, not born with." He emphasized the words with another dodge, and now he was well within range of the tower's spikes. "Eight Trigrams: Two Palms!" Two quick blows knocked aside spikes extending towards him, even as he marched closer to the fortress.

"Four Palms!" Another two spikes were blown out of the way as he increased in speed, now moving diagonally around and inwards towards the wall of the structure. "Eight Palms!" He struck the _tower itself_ with the next four attacks, dodging around Kakuzen's spikes. "Sixteen Palms!" Eight more attacks hit all over the tower's side, and something strange was happening- _The spikes, they're slowing…_

"Thirty-Two Palms!" The barrage of attacks was almost unhindered as the rootspikes stopped coming and the tower ceased its defensive extensions. "Sixty-Four Palms!" Sureki's next thirty-two strikes were scattered all around the wooden fort, and he finally came to a stop directly before Kakuzen, standing on the earth far below his opponent. Kakuzen peered over the edge, annoyed expression on his face, but no attacks came. "Wood Style isn't very useful when you can't touch the ground, now is it? You were sending your signals through the tower itself, but even my Byakugan can see the chakra points of something this big." _He blocked off Kakuzen's wood jutsu by destroying the living wood's chakra network!_ Kame failed to keep the amazed expression from his face at the display of tactical and martial skill.

Kakuzen narrowed his eyes, leaping backwards off of his fortress. "You haven't defeated me yet, uncle, so do not- grk!" His statement was cut off by _Sureki_ grabbing him in midair from behind. The Sureki that had been speaking to him before dissolved into a pool of water. _Was it a clone the whole time? Or did he make and hide a clone, then substitute with it afterwards?_ Whichever it was, Kakuzen had fallen for it and was now stuck in midair with Sureki behind him.

"First Gate, Gate of Opening: Open!" Sureki activated the technique in midair even as a trail of bandages emerged from where they'd been wrapped around his forearm and swung out to encircle his younger opponent. Kakuzen was bound tightly as Sureki used his finisher: "Frontal Lotus!" _So this is the jutsu that the Sand Devil is based off of,_ Kame thought. Kakuzen's eyes widened in horror as Sureki spun with him in midair, faster and faster, and the pair hurtled towards the ground. In an impact that made Kame wince, Kakuzen was drilled into the solid ground head-first, while Sureki hopped backwards, obviously taxed from the effort.

The proctor checked to make sure that Kakuzen was well and truly unconscious, then yelled (far too gleefully): "And we have a winner! In a blistering taijutsu combination move, Sureki Hyuga has defeated the undefeatable Wood Style and claimed his place in the quarterfinals!" Sureki exited the field grinning and Kame couldn't help but smile back- until he remembered his own situation. "Next up, we have a real grudge match! From the Hidden Valley, Gunaji of the Kokuseki clan, up against his own twin sister Sagino Kokuseki! Who will come up on top in this blood feud of-"

"I forfeit," Sagino said quietly as she approached the field's center, which immediately killed the proctor's speech. The crowd tittered, but they didn't seem to have heard the words exchanged, causing Kame to realize that the voice-amplification jutsu was weaker for the contestants than it was for the proctor. The genin could catch what was being said from their box carved into the wall close up to the field, but civilians far up in the stands would likely be hard-pressed to hear the talking.

"No," Gunaji hissed, jogging up beside her at the center of the field. "We talked about this. You have to fight if you want to get promoted to chunin."

"Yeah, but-"

"The match has yet to start," the proctor clarified in a normal, conversational voice, far removed from the energetic announcer's tone he'd used up to that point, but immediately swapping back to it: "It's brother versus sister in this one, folks, so buckle up! Three! Two! One! Begin!"

"I forfeit," Sagino said, immediately turning back around to walk away, leaving a gaping proctor and extremely annoyed Gunaji standing in the middle of the field. After a few seconds the crowd itself seemed to realize what was going on and a few scattered boos grew in number as Gunaji fled the field as well beneath a roar of booing spectators pissed about being denied their entertainment.

"Winner by forfeit: Gunaji Kokuseki," the proctor said, sounding just as disappointed as the spectators. For his part, Kame was actually intrigued by the turn of events- _I knew Gunaji was the more ambitious of the two_ , he thought, _but I didn't realize Sagino didn't care to this extent_.

The siblings were bickering even as they re-entered the box, with Gunaji midway through a furious tirade- "Yeah, but this makes _me_ look bad too- it makes the whole clan look bad, sis! Now the Hidden Leaf thinks we're all a bunch of quitters!"

"Then show them you're not in your next fight," Sagino said calmly.

"I just... why would you just _forfeit_?"

Sagino shook her head, seemingly exasperated by the topic. "I never pretended I was looking to be some great ninja, alright? You, mom, and dad roped me into going this far, but I don't want to go any further. You can go be a great chunin, jonin, Kage, whatever. I just want to settle down and have a nice, quiet life."

Kame blinked, feeling equal parts awkward for having listened in to their obviously private conversation and surprised at Sagino's attitude- surrounded as he was by ambitious prodigies and overachievers, it was oddly shocking to see Sagino's lack of motivation. The two returned to their spot beside their remaining teammate just in time for the proctor's next shouted introduction.

"Well, that might've been anticlimactic, but this next fight won't be! Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for a rumble, because we have the Quicksand King, Tetsute of the Hidden Sand, up against Kosu the Intangible of the Hidden Cloud!" _When did he come up with these nicknames?_

Tetsute moved towards the staircase, striding down it with Kosu trailing a short distance behind him. Kame wasn't certain who to root for, nor was he certain who would be more likely to need the support- although he was well acquainted with Tetsute's capabilities, Kosu's were a complete unknown.

Kame ended up watching Tetsute disappear from view without uttering a word, unable to find the right thing to say. _I need to finish what I started at some point,_ Kame thought. _It's not good for anyone involved to keep him as an enemy…_ but images of Tetsute treating Haku like garbage kept appearing in Kame's mind, and he couldn't stifle the disgust. _Not right now. I can't forgive him in such a short time, even if he was acting out of some misplaced friendship with me._

He joined his two squadmates at the railing, looking down into the arena where the still-in-disbelief Kosu was squaring off against Tetsute. The proctor waved his hand between them, shouting: "Ready? Three! Two! One! Go!"

Tetsute immediately flashed through a set of seals that Kame knew all too well and then slammed his hands on the ground. "Earth Style: Quicksand Sea Jutsu!" The earth softened in a wave coming out from where he'd touched, rippling into a liquid-like state and forcing Kosu to desperately dodge backwards. Once the jutsu reached its maximum range, he slowed down a little bit and appeared to take a breather, scanning the area… but Tetsute was gone.

For a few seconds, Kosu looked around the arena frantically, confusion clear on his face. However, despite his searching, the Cloud genin never even saw it coming when Tetsute's hands emerged from the dirt around his feet. "Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!" Kosu disappeared into the ground as Tetsute emerged, and in the blink of an eye he was up to his neck. Tetsute cockily swung an arm around as if to loosen himself up, and then pulled a kunai and held it to the other boy's forehead. "Feel like conceding?"

Kosu, oddly enough, smirked at that. "Nah, not just yet." He appeared to concentrate for a moment, and then he simply disappeared into a puff of smoke like a shadow clone- but instead of dissipating, the smoke streamed around Tetsute and reformed behind him. "What about you?" he asked, brandishing his own kunai over Tetsute's throat in a reversal of their previous positions.

Tetsute grimaced and threw himself backwards into his attacker, sending them tumbling to the ground. The kunai stabbed into his neck, but rather than blood, dirt fell away from the wound, and then 'Tetsute' fell apart completely into clods of earth. Another Tetsute rose from the earth, grinning from ear to ear. "Now I've got you. Earth Style: Earth Prison Jutsu." The clone's loose dirt solidified suddenly, trapping Kosu underneath the solid mass of soil.

However, the cloud genin just used the same intangibility jutsu to escape once again, dissolving into mist but retreating rather than attacking. For a little while, there was a peace between the two as they prowled to the sides, both probably formulating plans as best they could with their newfound information. _Tetsute needs to stall this out and hope that Kosu's smoke defense eats up a lot of chakra; because as an earth and fire release user there's no way he could possibly attack the gas form._

Tetsute seemed to share the sentiment, dropping the jutsu tactic and simply pelting the smoky Kosu with kunai and shuriken, forcing him to remain incorporeal. However, Kosu didn't appear to be in any trouble at all- in fact, he seemed content to sit there as a cloud for minutes on end. Kame, with a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind, stepped over to the remaining Cloud genin, Dako. "Hey, Dako… so… how long can Kosu stay like that?"

The larger boy turned to stare at Kame for a few awkward seconds before answering an a sullen voice. "Forever."

 _What? That… shouldn't be possible._ Kame was at a loss for words. _If he could remain in that invulnerable state forever, then… how is anyone supposed to beat him?_ "That's… What kind of jutsu lasts forever?"

"Not a jutsu."

 _If it's not a jutsu, then… a kekkegenkai?_ "I've never heard of that kekkegenkai before."

Dako sighed and turned back to the fight. "Kosu and his mother are the only ones who have it. And before you ask me anything else, can you just shut up and watch the fight like everyone else?"

Kame returned to where he'd stood before, more subdued now. Looking back down into the battlefield, things were going poorly for Tetsute. He appeared to have run out of projectile weaponry and was breathing more slowly, while Kosu was still untouchable. The Cloud boy eventually solidified again, twirling a kunai and whistling happily. "You about done, Tetsute? I'm kinda getting bored…"

Tetsute grimaced. "Not just yet." He darted forward, preparing another jutsu, and Kame gasped a little bit at the intense feel of chakra radiating from his old friend's hands. _That has to be almost everything he has…_ Whatever this jutsu was, it would probably determine the fight. "Earth Style: Badlands Jutsu!" The ground around his feet cracked and split, spreading out almost all the way across the arena and turning it into a desert terrain. "And now, Fire and Earth Style Combination: Pits of Hell Jutsu!" He slammed his hands onto the altered earth and it sizzled, sending a visible wave of heat roiling outwards and actually making the cracks in the ground glow orange-yellow from heat.

He looked mostly spent, but his combination jutsu had turned the arena into a sizzling wasteland. Kosu, for some reason, opened his eyes wide in panic and when Tetsute charged, he _didn't_ go into a smoke form. The two went into melee combat, but this time Tetsute had one more trick up his sleeve as he cast a final jutsu: "Earth Style: Mace of the Guardian!"

Dirt and stone streamed up from the steaming ground around his feet, condensing into a one-handed mace ending in a spiked ball. Tetsute spun the weapon with a practiced grip and it was clear from the first swing that Kosu was outmatched. He didn't even try to block; a kunai wouldn't work to stop Tetsute's much larger and heavier blows, so instead the Cloud genin began dodging backwards, unwilling for some reason to use his kekkeigenkai.

Tetsute laughed as he attacked with little grace or technique, merely smashing the mace directly towards Kosu repeatedly- he didn't need to do anything fancier, as Kosu was driven backwards until he hit the wall of the arena. A final blow came thundering towards his chest and finally forced him to enter his smoke form- only to go soaring skyward and reconsolidate fifteen feet above the ground, falling down directly onto Tetsute's raised knee with an awful crunching sound before unceremoniously landing in the heated dirt. Tetsute's mace came streaming down on the prone boy's back, only to be stopped when-

"I forfeit," Kosu conceded, but despite the loss, he actually didn't seem all that upset as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off, and by the time he stepped out of the arena, his face had regained its ever-present smile. Tetsute, ironically, walked back towards the viewing balcony looking far more taxed and unhappy than his defeated opponent. The crowd cheered less than they had for Haku's come-from-behind victory, which wasn't surprising- this last fight had been a lot less of a show. Tetsute had attacked constantly until he'd found a way to win, with few twists or turns.

 _Wait, how did he win?_ Kame looked back at the arena, and then he realized: with the ground superheated, an updraft had formed and was blowing stray leaves up into the air. _Kosu's smoke form would have been forced up and out of the arena, eliminating him by ring-out and maybe even killing him if he couldn't keep himself together. That's... smart_ , Kame had to admit.

"Winner by forfeit: Tetsute Hasagi!" The proctor's voice came blaring once more, but this time it was accompanied by the man making a series of handsigns before slamming his hands into the cracked, dry, and superheated dirt: "Earth Style: Earthen Memory Jutsu!" A wave of change spread in a circle from where he'd laid his hands down, somehow reverting everything it passed over to exactly as it had been before the fight. _That's useful_ , Kame noted, again intrigued by the proctor's strange arsenal of jutsu.

"Next up: It's another prodigy from our own Hidden Leaf, heir to the Uchiha, Uzumaki, _and_ Hyuga clans, Naruko Uchiha!" The girl in question was already halfway down the staircase. "Her opponent is from the Hidden Valley- Keikiro Torakku!" _Less fanfare for the smaller village_ , Kame noted. _Or maybe it's just more for Naruko_.

Keikiro started off down the staircase but Gunaji caught her arm before she could, warning "Be safe, Keikiro. Forfeit if you have to."

She rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'll protect myself. You sound like my mom." Kame watched her descend, sickening feeling in his stomach growing by the second. He noticed Miriki's hands clenched on the railing and his eyes fixated on the arena, looking more worried than Kame had ever seen him. Kame wished he had the Hatogan, or at least Miriki's skill with people, so that he could return his teammate's favors and reassure him- but he didn't, so instead he ducked out and turned to watch the next fight, unable to curb even his own terror.

The ground that the two kunoichi approached each other on was pristine, even the grass having regrown thanks to the proctor's jutsu. The crowd grew silent as the proctor stood between them, arm raised, and then… "Ready? Go!"

The instant the match began, it was over. Keikiro dashed backwards, but Naruko flashed through a set of handsigns and shouted, "Wind Style: Inescapable Grasp Jutsu!" The Valley genin, while still in midair, was blown back towards the Uchiha girl and was met with the hilt of a kunai to the forehead. Just as her unconscious body hit the ground, Naruko already had another attack incoming: "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

The blast of fire point-blank into an incapacitated Keikiro all but smothered her body. It lasted only a second, but when the flames cleared the Valley girl was visibly burned- _badly_. Most of her exposed skin had been scorched and her clothes were smoking. _That's... that's even worse than Haku_ , Kame thought in horror, eyes widening as he saw the extent of the damage.

"Winner by..." the proctor actually trailed off, only regaining composure after a stunned couple of seconds. "Winner by knockout: Naruko Uchiha!"

The crowd, composed mostly of civilians, gave a few halfhearted cheers, but for the most part silence reigned as a few medical ninja hurried out onto the field and loaded an unconscious Keikiro onto a stretcher. When Kame looked around him, even most of the other genin were shocked by the brutality they'd just witnessed.

Kame had transitioned by now from shock to _anger_. _Naruko had already won_ , he thought, _b_ _ut she blasted Keikiro anyway. I doubt they'll punish her for that, either_. His gaze focused back on the lone Uchiha, who made a disgusted noise and stalked off back towards the balcony, meeting Kame's furious eyes with a glare of her own. _Once I beat Genji,_ _I get to fight her in the next round_ , he thought, trying his damndest to store all the hatred he was feeling. _Then I can see justice done._

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Genin) (Hidden Leaf):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Genin Evaluation Data: Kakuzen Uzumaki**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _Kid has the wood release and the byakugan on top of it._

Genjutsu: B  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _Decent at genjutsu, but doesnt use it much because, again, he already has the wood release and the byakugan_.

Taijutsu: C  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _Why would he ever use taijutsu when he has the damn wood release and byakugan?_

Appearance: _Age thirteen. Above-average height (5'5"), average build, whisker birthmarks on cheeks, pale blonde hair, pale blue eyes. Typically clad in long white coat with Hyuga, Senju, and Uzumaki clan crests emblazoned upon it over Leaf genin vest and standard-issue shinobi clothing._

Attitude: _Able to work with others well enough, but is not visibly inclined to be social. Not particularly popular, likely due to being easily offended and strictly adhering to established rules._

History: _The eldest of three children born to Himawari Uzumaki and a rediscovered scion of the Senju clan, heir to the strongest genetic benefits of Hyuga, Uzumaki, and Senju alike. Genetic advantage spelled an easy ride through the Shinobi Academy despite early admittance and a graduation two years early. After being placed on a genin team, continued to succeed despite his age, firmly establishing himself as a prodigy._


	17. All Talk

There was a brief break between the rounds, ten minutes for the participants to strategize and the spectators to gather themselves. Kame spent it talking to Haku and Miriki, trying his best not to glance at Naruko. Miriki's moment of weakness was over, but Kame saw something in his eyes- the three-pointed stars had shifted to cross shapes with four points.

"Miriki, what's going on with your eyes?" Kame asked.

"Huh?" Miriki blinked a few times, confused, before widening his eyes and smiling. "Holy crap, I just got my fourth spoke, guys!"

Kame nodded. "Okay, fourth spoke of what? Mind explaining…?"

Miriki sighed. "Another stage of my Hatogan. I think... I think I got the spoke that lets me see what someone hates."

"And why did you just randomly develop this power? How do you know that you can see hatred? Why-" Kame was confused by the seemingly arbitrary nature of the Kosuki kekkegenkai and the flurry of questions left his mouth one after the other. Haku, on the other hand, walked away from the two of them towards the other genin for some reason.

Miriki held up a hand. "Slow down there, dude. I'll answer them one at a time, okay? The Hatogan unlocks when you feel extreme, real emotional pain on behalf of someone else that you care about. You can't use it at all until you've unlocked at least three spokes, though..." _That sounds similar to the sharingan,_ Kame thought.

"So who-"

Miriki winced and put a finger over Kame's mouth, then looked to both sides suspiciously before answering. "Keikiro, just now. My parents were the other two, and Haku was the most recent before Keikiro today." _Haku? Did he know her, before the team? No, at the first meeting he said that he hadn't unlocked the kekkegenkai yet. Could he know about Haku trying to kill herself… but I didn't tell anyone, how could he…?_

Kame realized his mistake when Miriki sighed and replied to his unvoiced fears. "Yes, I knew. My family… well, they know everything that goes on in the village. My parents said… they said that they'd posted someone to follow her and scan her thoughts, and that she'd killed herself. Their exact words were, 'Now that your team has been broken up, you can give up your silly little ninja games and-'" Miriki stopped, realizing he'd said too much, and put his smile back on.

"Well, I got my Hatogan there, and imagine my surprise when Haku came to our next team meeting. I didn't know what happened, if my parents lied, but when you two came back I saw it all in your fears."

"And what about my other questions? How do you know what it does?"

"Well, we're taught all about what it does before we even get it in most cases. The Kosuki clan expects much from their heir- or, they did, before I convinced them otherwise. As for how I know what it does... well, Naruko hates pretty much everyone in this box." Kame's eyes glanced over to see the Uchiha scowling with arms crossed. "Except Sureki and Kakuzen. Hell, she still hates Keikiro, even after doing what she just did to her." Miriki's eyes narrowed in something approaching anger. "Look, Kame, if you don't end things with Naruko-"

Kame started to respond that he _would_ , but Miriki raised a finger in a _shush_ gesture. "- _If_ you don't... I'll make sure to beat her in as embarrassing a way as possible, okay? For Haku and Keikiro."

Kame felt a strange moment of kinship with Miriki that he'd never have imagined would come to pass. "Huh. You act like a screwoff, but deep down you're a good person, aren't you?"

"Yeah, just shout it for the whole world to hear, why don't-" Miriki clammed up when Haku approached them. "Hey, Haku! I was just explaining to Kame here how he shouldn't be embarrassed about his habit of wearing girl's underwear."

Haku looked confused, and Kame immediately forgot any respect he'd had for Miriki in the last few minutes. "No! I don't… what are you…"

Sureki approached them behind Haku and gave them a little wave. He turned to Kame, face downcast. "Look, I know that I shouldn't say this, but… I think it's best if you guys just forfeit to Naruko."

Kame immediately shook his head. "No."

"Look, it's… she's not…" the Hyuga boy sighed and dropped his gaze in shame. "I don't want you to misconstrue this as me trying to help her win, or me trying to 'save' her from being upset. That's not what this is." _Then what the hell-_ "Naruko… she's been through a lot growing up, and her biggest driving factor is her desire to make good on the legacy of all the clans coming to a head in her. She has the blood of the Uchiha, the Uzumaki, the Namikaze, and the Hyuga in her veins, so for her to lose is-"

"What about for her to hurt people?" Kame challenged. "What about for her to kill other peoples' dreams? You can talk about her lineage all you want, but when you look at her _actions_ she's an unstable bully!"

Sureki responded with more anger than Kame would have thought. "You don't know her! You don't understand what…" he trailed off. "In preparation for the final tournament, our sensei had us look at village data on the other participants. I know you come from the shattered remnants of a clan from the Heat Devil Village, so please don't presume to know what it's like to have the expectations of a vast group of people all weighing on your success.

"As for your teammates- Haku," he said, turning to face her, "There was nothing at all on you, so… I don't know what that means, my best guess is that nobody bothered to collect information on the taijutsu-only-user." _That's very, very wrong,_ thought Kame, but he held his tongue. "And Miriki, you're from the Kosuki, and however small and insignificant-" _What!?_ "-they might be, they're still a clan. Don't you understand the constant pressure of expectations and traditions?"

Miriki chuckled a little bit. "Yeah, I did, but after a lot of hard work I've convinced them to give up on me… mostly. They still send my _perfect_ cousin, Ginsenbo, to come after me and…" he cleared his throat, then continued in a fake aristocratic voice: "Rectify my unseemly and improper behavior."

Sureki looked taken aback. "You aren't even _trying_ to make your clan proud?"

"No, I'm doing the opposite."

Before the Hyuga boy could press the topic any further, the proctor's voice sounded out across the arena. "Get ready for the next half of the first day, folks! This time we've got two desert-dwelling shinobi from the Hidden Sand- first up, Kame Hakiara, the sole remaining heir of an entire village-" _What?_ Kame snapped his attention back to the arena center. _How does he know that? And why would he say something like that? Is it just to whip the crowd up?_ "Up against his fellow Sand ninja, Genji Sanakishi, master of the blade and wind alike!"

 _I honestly think these introductions are getting_ more _theatrical as the tournament goes on_ , Kame thought, dimly registering Haku and Miriki wishing him luck and Tetsute of all people giving him a simple nod of encouragement as he moved to descend the steps. _Haku won her match_ , he realized. _I won't let her down by losing mine_. He looked up at Genji, who was gazing at him intensely. The boy sighed and said, "Tetsute passed, didn't he? And- no offense- but I'm pretty sure Rakuyo's gonna win her fight against Miriki, too, so..." he sighed. "If I lose this, they probably both rip into me for being the weak link _again_."

Funnily enough, Genji's casual attitude helped to lift a little bit of the stress of of Kame's shoulders. "Hey, you can still do your best, right?"

"I guess. Heh," Genji laughed, "I just realized- Tetsute gave you a nod, didn't he? That's funny, because he didn't do anything for me. Honestly," he continued, dropping into a conspiratorial whisper, "This team kinda sucks. Rakuyo and Tetsute are such elitists, you know? Nowhere near as funny as Miriki. They have such high expectation for themselves, all the time, but… there aren't really any expectations for me…" Genji trailed off as the proctor stepped forward, sending out the hand in a familiar motion and than raising it.

"Ready? Three! Two! One! Go!"

The instant the words left the proctor's mouth, Genji had already torn through five handsigns with impossible speed and shouted: "Wind Blade Jutsu!" Kame had to desperately turn around, back to his opponent (a cardinal sin for a shinobi) in order to dive out of the way of the sudden attack. From behind him, he heard Genji finish his earlier sentence. "So I guess I'd better start setting higher expectations for myself then. Maybe if I beat you here, I can earn their respect. Wind Blade Jutsu!" Sheer luck saved Kame as the other boy's second attack clipped the side of his leg but didn't do any real damage.

Kame spun back around once he'd gained enough distance, only to sorely regret it as Genji had kept up with him and was swinging a silver short sword in an arc towards his midsection. He drew a kunai and blocked the attack near the hilt, using the leverage in order to stop the larger blade from biting into his side. _Okay, this might work, now I just-_

_Oh, son of a bitch._

He'd forgotten to take Wasp down with him. (In the stands, although Kame couldn't see it, Kankuro was wondering why he'd ever taken the idiotic boy on as an apprentice.) _How could I make such a stupid, rookie mistake? That's not even a rookie mistake, it's a pre-academy-graduation move._ He'd now have to win this fight without using any of his puppet jutsu. _I can still do this. Get some distance, keep him on his toes._

Kame readied the Gale Force Jutsu in his free hand- a nice thing about that jutsu in particular was that it only took one hand to cast, due to its relative simplicity. Genji appeared to realize what was going on, but it was far too late. Kame swung the hand around and shouted, "Gale Force Jutsu!" blowing both genin away from each other. He landed relatively athletically, stopping himself before he hit the arena wall, while Genji somehow stabilized himself in midair and hit the ground running.

The team seven genin started in a wide arc, maintaining his distance from his opponent at an even fifteen feet as Kame walked towards the middle of the arena. _I have to keep my dodging options open; it's more important than having the wall behind me._ Once Kame reached a spot about thirty meters out from the wall, Genji increased in speed until he was actually nearing Haku-levels of sprinting power. Sounding out from all around Kame, the boy's voice was weirdly gleeful: "I was saving this one to impress Miriki, but I guess this is as good of a time as any to use it!"

Kame readied a wind barrier in case this attack was a projectile-based one, forcing himself to calm down and prepare himself for whatever was coming. When the attack finally released, though, it was far beyond his ability to stop it. "Wind Style: Hurricane Execution Dance!" Genji blurred and disappeared into winds so extreme that they were visible. A tornado spun into existence all around Kame, pinning him in on all sides.

Then the wind blades came, flying in from unpredictable angles and forcing him to dive around just barely avoiding them.

 _Crap, this is bad._ Kame pulled out and folded a windbomb while ducking underneath another wind blade. _Huh, I guess the multitasking training with Master Kankuro extends to more than just Puppet Style._ He released the paper airplane towards the wall, intending to dispel enough of the jutsu to blow a hole for him to escape through- but the plane was sent astray and then shredded by the intense winds. _Of course, idiot-_

While he reprimanded himself, one of the wind blades came in low and blindsided the back of his knee. He'd dodged it just barely enough to avoid a broken bone, but he was still thrown to the ground and pain shot up his left side. _Shit, if I don't escape this soon I'm done for._ _Think, what can you do? There's nothing visible to substitute out with, so how else can I…_

 _Oh._ He sent up a quick prayer to all the watching gods to not make him regret what he was about to do, and then plastered another windbomb to the floor beneath him.

He then jumped as high as he could, avoiding another wind blade in the process, and when he reached the peak of his leap, he braced himself and made the seal to detonate the bomb.

The blast sent him flying, drawing out a gasp of pain as his already-hurt leg was yanked painfully. It didn't seem to stop Genji's jutsu, but the other boy halted it himself when Kame left it. When Kame gathered himself, he took stock of the situation: _I'm ten meters above the ground, losing forward momentum, and... there's the tree where I should be landing._ He narrowed his eyes and tried his best to recall the jutsu he'd invented the night before.

Yesterday, he'd been thinking: _In the last couple of serious fights, I've blown myself around with bombs and jutsu. I know how to condense and unleash wind chakra, so it should be possible to just make a softer version of the Gale Force Jutsu, and let it out around my feet, right?_ Of course, it hadn't been that easy, as the feet were some of the hardest chakra points to use for anything. However, through a _lot_ of practice and falling off of tree branches, he'd managed to get a solid start.

 _Hopefully it's solid enough,_ he thought, channeling chakra into the soles of his feet and applying the change of nature as he released it, "Wind Style: Wind Cushion Jutsu!" The resulting swirl of air was strong enough to slow him down, but it was a new jutsu and he'd misjudged the necessary amount. Still, a crash that should have broken his bones on the wooden branches was instead a crash that bruised his flesh. Kame stood, using chakra to seal his feet to the tree and peering around to catch a glimpse of Genji.

Kame was briefly distracted by a tiny murmur that went through the crowd- _I think some of the shinobi among them might know that I made that one up._ He flushed with accomplishment and _once again_ his pride cost him- Genji shouted, "Wind Blade Jutsu!" from directly below him and he felt the branch that he stood on break off the tree, a blade of wind shearing directly up the trunk and cutting off the branch at its point of origin.

Still, now that he was out of the tornado jutsu, Kame was able to see the large rocks along the edges of the river that were almost definitely put there to facilitate jutsu for contestants. With a quick reach of his chakra and a shout of "Substitution!", Kame was standing next to the river and watched with a little bit more humor than he'd like to admit when the rock he'd swapped with fell towards Genji. The other boy had to dive to get out of the way, standing up and dusting himself off.

"You know, Tetsute and Rakuyo definitely didn't undersell you," Genji said. Kame briefly lost focus as he thought about that statement- _I knew that they wanted me back, but… were they talking about me behind my back? With Genji?_ He instinctively turned around to the balcony where Tetsute stood, which was a mistake. "Wind Blade Jutsu!" Kame grunted as he felt something hit his midsection and send him flying. _Crap, I… wait, I'm still conscious, and I don't think I broke anything. Is he running out of chakra?_

"Damn, I messed up on that one." Genji winced, "I guess I gotta learn to not get distracted by my own banter." _Miriki must have taught him to distract people like that,_ Kame realized. "Oh well, I guess you're back out in the open, so…" _Shit!_ Kame sprinted towards the far treeline, reaching it before Genji could trap him in another tornado. _Genji's not very..._ _competent_. He missed more attacks than any other ninja Kame had ever seen and just how had wasted his chance to surprise Kame by stating his advantage out loud. _If I lose to him after that, then I'm an embarassment._

"Go, Kame!" Kame heard Haku shout, remembering this time not to turn away from his opponent, but couldn't stop the smile from making it onto his face. _Thanks, Haku._ _I think it's about time that I go on the offensive._ He reached into his pocket and removed two weakened paperbombs, folding and sending them off towards Genji while drawing a shuriken. _If he commits to a dodge or to shooting them out of the sky, I can throw the shuriken._

However, the Sand genin did neither, instead flashing through another set of handsigns. Kame had to take a moment to fully appreciate the sheer speed and technique of Genji's handsigns- he was significantly faster than even Deihaka was. _His family owns a… that's right, they do all the paperwork for the Hidden Sand. I guess that growing up with a family of grunt-work writers gave him that dexterity and speed._ After mere seconds but tens of signs, Genji thrust a hand out in front of him: "Wind Style: Sword of the Hero!" _That's similar to the jutsu Zandeina used… and the one Tetsute used as well..._

Kame suddenly vaguely remembered an article he'd read a long time ago talking about the emergence of new elemental jutsu that summoned effigies of weapons based on the elements used. At the time he'd written it off, convinced as he was that he'd want to be a mid-range fighter, but in his current situation he began racking his mind for any detail he could in order to get a better grasp of what Genji's jutsu would do. Failing to recall anything of use, he instead reverted to using his base senses, starting with vision:

In Genji's open hand, wind swirled faster and faster until it condensed into a katana-shaped form, nearly a meter in length. The Sanakishi boy assumed a stance, one leg slightly forward and the sword held with two hands facing down and backwards at his waist- almost as if it was sheathed. Then, in the blink of an eye and before Kame could react, he swung the blade forward. Where he'd slashed, a wave of wind cut through the air itself and cleanly cut through both the paper airplanes in one line. _Ugh_ , Kame thought, _back to the defense it is, then._

Kame took brief stock of his situation. He was down to eight weakened paperbombs and eight windbombs- _probably the most valuable ones, since they're the ones I can safely hit these enemies with without injuring them and risking disqualification._ His chakra was at a reasonable level, perhaps twenty or twenty-five percent depleted. The jutsu he used were all fairly low on chakra usage, so the only times he ever really ran out was on his paperbomb-production days. His body was about the same- he was a little bit winded and his leg hurt from the hit it had taken, but he could still operate at close to full capacity.

Genji started forwards, sword at his side as if he were a samurai. _I know this technique- Laido?_ Kame (during an extremely brief phase in his childhood where he'd decided that he was going to be a taijutsu specialist) had looked into various weapons and their associated fighting styles. The style Genji appeared to be using was called Laido, and was focused around quick strikes from a sheathed position and then a return to the neutral sheathed stance. _That means that he's unlikely to chain several attacks together- I'll keep that in mind._

Kame moved back into the trees, confident that his opponent's wide wind attacks would be crippled inside the dense forest. However, as Genji approached, a flash of his arms sent another cut forward, slicing cleanly through multiple tree trunks before him. _Okay, so hiding in the treeline isn't an option. What can I do, here? He's got me trapped, and I can't see any substitution targets. Haku's watching this from just a little bit away, I can't-_

 _Wait._ The balcony was only about ten meters from the ground , and five meters to Kame's left. _If I can…_ he extended a chakra thread, stretching it out through the stone of the arena wall, up towards the balcony, bumping into another person's chakra, before settling on Wasp. _Okay, now we're in business._ Despite flying blind, Kame knew what direction Wasp was facing and how high it had to go to clear the railing, so he guided it carefully until it appeared in the corner of his vision.

Genji was rapidly approaching, and the proctor would most likely call the match if he could get swing it near Kame's neck (stopping it before killing him, obviously... hopefully). _I can't let that happen,_ he thought, and sent Wasp streaking off towards the center of the arena at breakneck speed. Once it was close enough to the ground, Kame shouted, "Substitution!" and swapped with the little construct. _Wait, if Genji breaks it, Master Kankuro's never going to let me hear the end of it,_ he thought as he turned around.

However, rather than attack the puppet, Genji had instantly dashed straight for him the second he'd cast the substitution. _Shit, I miscalculated badly-_ but it was too late. The wind sword fell from the genin's hands as he flashed through a set of signs for the second time, and Kame was powerless to escape the hurricane that swirled to life around him. Out in the middle of the arena now, there was nothing to substitute to, and to his horror he saw that Genji was somehow arching the edges of the wind wall upwards and inwards to prevent a repeat of Kame's earlier escape. In addition, the wall was a chakra construct, snapping his chakra thread off of Wasp when it entered existence.

The wind blades started coming in fast and hard, leaving Kame helpless to do anything but dodge and hope that a plan revealed itself. _When he's in that wall, I can't see him, so I can't target him with anything. Paperbombs thrown at the wall are useless, but if I detonate them near me, then I'll get caught in the blast- besides, the only way that a blast from here is going to stop him is if I hit him directly, but he's invisible. If I hit the whole wall… no, it's impossible. I don't have any bombs that are big enough._

Then a plan, a ridiculous plan, came to Kame, and he almost laughed. "Alright, it's the end of the line," he muttered to himself while dodging another wind blade. He reached into one of his pouches, but instead of pulling a single bomb out of the dispenser, he forced the jaws open and grabbed _all of them_. Swinging his hand upwards, the stack of normal paperbombs spread itself out in a long line, still attached at the edges to make a chain. Imagining how stupid he must look, Kame spun in a circle, and the thirty paperbombs spread into a spiraling ribbon stretching around his body several times.

 _They should all arm now that they're out of the suppressing pouch, and I made them to be directed-blast types. Genji, this is probably going to hurt… sorry._ With his other hand, he made the correct sign, and all thirty of the bombs detonated simultaneously.

 _Thoom_.

The area in a ten-meter radius of him was blasted with light and heat, forcing him to close his eyes and flinch defensively. When he opened them again, his jaw dropped- He stood in the center of a huge crater, on a single spot of untouched grass. For ten meters in any direction, the dirt had been blown away to form a deep pit, and what was left was charred black and smoking. _Genji, no…_

Kame's brief moment of panic subsided when he saw his fellow Sand genin laid out on the ground just outside the blast crater, seemingly singed but still visibly breathing. The proctor performed the routine checks and then shouted, "Winner by knockout: Kame Hakiara!"

The crowd went wild, apparently loving the mass destruction he'd caused. Genji groaned and stirred a little bit, and Kame walked over to help him up. "That was a good fight, man."

Genji looked at the blast crater and paled. "Oh holy… that's… yeah, good fight." He stood up, and the crowd's cheers got even louder- _maybe they aren't just for me,_ thought Kame. He turned to walk off towards the staircase that led up to the viewing balcony, while Genji moved in the opposite direction towards the exit. Somehow, over the wild cheering and everything else, Kame heard Haku's voice.

"You're amazing, Kame!" She was smiling at him, and he couldn't help but smile back- until he saw another form standing at the balcony. Naruko was looking at him with naked distaste, arms folded over her chest. _Sneer all you want_ , he thought, _but I'm going to make you pay_.

After another "Earth Style: Earthen Memory Jutsu!" the proctor's voice once again reached its announcer-like pitch as he introduced the final fight of the initial round. "Last but not least, we've got two _more_ Sand shinobi- sure are a lot of 'em this year- facing off. Get ready for a fight between two of the Village Hidden in the Sand's founding families as Miriki of the Kosuki clan faces off against Rakuyo of the Kuyanari clan!"

 _He's pretty good at finding an angle to make the fights sound important_ , Kame considered. A scattered round of applause heralded the entry of both genin as they made their way to the center of the field, Miriki smiling and waving with all the confidence in the world and Rakuyo dead serious, fingering the handle of a kunai already half-outside of the pouch on her waist.

"Ready? Three! Two! One! Go!"

Rakuyo's kunai was in the air almost before the order to start came, but Miriki seemed to have seen it coming was already dodging to the left-

Just like she'd planned, because she'd already thrown another kunai leading to the left and Miriki's dodge took his directly into its path. He had only one option left to avoid it and dove beneath, only to once again play directly into her plans. Mid-dive, horizontal in the air near the ground, he had no chance to correct his path and took two shuriken to his thigh and one to his calf, placed expertly to reduce his mobility. Kame realized that his teammate might not have much of a chance as he struggled to his feet, grimacing and clearly favoring his left side while bloodstains began to run down his right pant leg.

"Well, Loverboy?" Rakuyo taunted, flicking first one and then two shuriken up into the air and juggling them with only one hand in a display of her dexterity. "No Kame to carry your ass this time, is there?"

"Ngh- No," Miriki said, pain seeping into his voice. "But... speaking of Kame and ass, I really don't think he wants yours."

 _What the fuck?_ Kame's eyes flared as it took him a few moments to properly register the direction his teammate seemed to be going with this fight. _What the hell does he think he's doing? Rakuyo is into Tetsute, isn't she? Why would he..._

His train of thought derailed as Rakuyo failed to conceal an annoyed reaction to the insult. "You're disgusting, you know that?"

"Not as disgusting as Kame finds you," Miriki said in a supremely satisfied voice, crossing his arms over his chest. Kame couldn't see his face, but had spent enough time around Miriki to know the exact smug expression (with one-eyebrow-raised and one half of his mouth smirking) that he always wore when verbally sparring. "It's pretty ironic that, after all the pathetic, jealous shit you pulled, it's _Haku_ that he ended up with."

 _He means... as a teammate, right?_ Kame's gaze shot over to Haku, who was already looking at him with hints of confusion, humor, doubt, and... something else that he couldn't quite identify on her face. Before he could give any more thought to it, he noticed something else: Tetsute, looking directly at him with a face that promised later pain. _Shit_ , Kame realized, _He's always had a thing for Rakuyo, right? Miriki's gonna set him off on me if-_

"I mean, I do have to let you know that she has you beat when it comes to her bo-" Miriki's sentence was (thankfully) cut off when Rakuyo launched a shuriken spinning directly towards his chest, this time forgoing any complex corralling or dodge manipulations in favor of simple speed and power. However, the Kosuki boy deflected the shuriken with far too much ease, one swing of his kunai perfectly knocking the attack away. _He's more skilled than I thought_ , Kame realized.

"You'll have to do better than that," Miriki grinned. "Were you really making fun of Haku at the academy when all _you_ can do is throw shuriken and kunai?"

Rakuyo only growled and began launching a barrage of projectiles, each one coming at varying speeds, some thrown upwards to arc down onto him while others went straight, resulting in a flurry of incoming weapons that was nearly impossible to analyze or deflect. _Maybe if he dodges, he can avoid the worst of-_

Miriki made a few handsigns and raised a hand: "Fire Style: Great Wall of Fire Jutsu." A spray of flame exploded from his palm and coalesced into a raging wall of it before him, catching every one of Rakuyo's attacks with ease and melting the metal implements down into molten globs at his feet. _What the hell?_ Kame leaned forward, now watching the fight intently as his teammate revealed he'd been keeping secret an entire _Nature Transformation_.

"How?" Rakuyo hissed, stumbling a half-step back. "Three months ago you could barely cast a Clone Jutsu, and now..."

Miriki let the wall of fire subside, but his smirk remained, wider and cockier than ever. "What, you thought I was _trying_ at the academy? You think Haku was?" Kame now understood why his teammate kept bringing up Haku- it was both a way to enrage Rakuyo, and a way to get some semblance of justice for the years of being looked down upon Haku had suffered. "You were a queen back in a world where no one else cared enough to challenge you, sweetheart. Welcome to the real world."

He made another chain of signs and then breathed through a clenched fist, spitting out a little spurt of fire that burst to life when it hit the ground in front of him. "Fire Style: Majestic Conflagratory Devastating Cataclysm Jutsu!" As the blaze in front of him started to stream forward, spreading in a semicircle forwards and away from him far faster than any normal fire could, Kame was in shock. _I've never even heard of these jutsu_ , he thought, barely able to believe... his... eyes.

He shot a glance towards where Miriki's wall had touched the arena ground, but found no sign of scorching. In fact, even the edges of the spreading patch of flaming ground didn't leave any ash or sparks, and Kame couldn't feel any heat or smell any smoke. _Holy shit_ , he thought as the reality of the situation dawned on him, _t_ _his is all one big illusory genjutsu_ _._

Rakuyo, enraged and confused as she was, failed to pick up on what Kame had and bolted from the incoming flames, making a beeline straight for the edge of the river and diving directly into the water.

The moment she broke the surface of the water, all of the flames disappeared, and littered shuriken and kunai became visible on the ground where they'd lain after being thrown at the illusory Miriki's illusory wall. Another small trail of discarded weapons leading back to where the fight had started showed that even Miriki's initial dodges had been done as an illusion, and he _hadn_ _'t_ ever been hit in the leg. The bloodstains were gone, as were any traces of the blaze that had just stretched over a good quarter of the arena's surface.

More importantly, Miriki himself appeared standing in the river, a kunai stuck in his right shoulder but otherwise healthy and smiling just as wide as his illusion had. "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu."

Rakuyo was yanked out of the water and surrounded by a sphere of concentrated water that seemed to bind her in place, preventing her from being able to do anything. Her expression shifted from rage, to horror, to shame, and back to rage, but there was nothing she could do. As the audience's roar of surprise and approval died down, Miriki was left to stand there and maintain the prison for close to a minute, until Rakuyo's attempt to hold her breath failed and she inhaled water and began coughing. He turned to the proctor, face quizzical- "You planning on calling it anytime soon, or...?"

The proctor looked intently at Rakuyo for a few seconds, long enough for her to choke twice more, and then nodded. "Winner by incapacitation: Miriki Kosuki!"

The crowd roared in approval, not having heard the details of the conversation exchanged but only knowing that Miriki had hoodwinked his opponent and likely most of them as well. He released the water prison and Rakuyo dropped to her hands and knees on the riverbank, retching up water even as Miriki waved to the crowd and winked, soaking up his moment of spotlight. Haku cheered as loudly as any of the spectators, and Kame even mentally shrugged before offering his own shout of "Nice one!" down to his teammate.

Eventually, Miriki shoved his hands in his pockets and took a casual stride over to the staircase, a polar opposite of Rakuyo's ashamed and hurried stumble out the gate to the waiting medic-nin. When Miriki disappeared from view, Kame had a brief moment to think over what exactly had just transpired, and realized the full magnitude of his friend had done.

Genjutsu mostly fell under two categories: mental intrusion and illusion creation. Mental intrusion typically consisted of using one of the five senses to access a person's mind and then alter the chakra flow in their brain and body to create a desired effect, whether that be altered perception of reality or paralysis or anything in between. It was the most common form of genjutsu used, because to micro-manage illusory creation genjutsu required a much greater degree of skill for a similar effect.

Miriki had used illusion creation so incredibly skillfully that Kame could _still_ barely believe it. He'd taken the first shuriken attack head-on while masking his own body in one illusion of empty space and simultaneously creating an illusion of himself dodging right into Rakuyo's trap, then made his illusory double appear to take damage from her shuriken while also creating a _third_ illusion of empty space behind the illusory Miriki to mask where the shuriken went after flying through it.

He'd had to create a lifelike wall of fire from memory, as well as the spreading blaze on the ground, on top of maintaining his empty-space illusions over her shuriken and his own true body as he made his way over into the river to lie in wait. Kame felt more respect for his friend than he'd ever felt before and was waiting with an offered hand when Miriki stepped back up into the box.

Slightly confused, Miriki accepted the handshake, but Kame made sure to meet his eyes when he said "That was really, _really_ impressive."

"Just wait," Miriki replied, grinning. "You haven't seen anything yet."

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Active Jonin) (Hidden Leaf):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Chunin Exam Proctor Assignment Data: Kenken Tagimata**

Ninjutsu: B  
\- Kage (Naruto Uzumaki) Notes: _Pretty good at Earth, Wind, and Water style_

Genjutsu: B  
\- Kage (Naruto Uzumaki) Notes: _Skilled at a whole bunch of utility and illusory genjutsu_

Taijutsu: B  
\- Kage (Naruto Uzumaki) Notes: _Alright at unarmed combat, but not the best_

Appearance: _Age forty-one. Above-average height (6'1"), above-average weight (164 lbs), chubby build, hair color and style often change, brown eyes. Typically clad in extremely casual shirts and pants, along with Leaf jonin vest when not undercover_  
\- Exam Organizer Notes: _Unthreatening appearance supports third stage proctorship_

Attitude: _Extremely popular throughout career thus far amonst other academy students, genin, chunin, and jonin assigned to work with him, unsurprising given his specialization in spycraft._  
\- Exam Organizer Notes: _Unlikely to hold excessive bias towards village or hatred of other villages, supporting third stage proctorship_

History: _Despite on passable test scores, graduated Leaf Shinobi Academy at minimum age, promoted to chunin at minimum age, and despite mediocre combat record was promoted to jonin at minimum age. Proceeded to specialize in spycraft and civilian relations, achieved unprecedented success rate in diplomatic and espionage missions. Recently taken on duties as jonin-sensei to a team of Hidden Leaf genin._  
\- Exam Organizer Notes: _Specialization in civilian relations makes him a prime candidate for chunin exams third stage proctoring._


	18. The Uchiha

There was another break between rounds, but Kame was too stressed to even attempt the casual small talk his teammates and most of the other genin engaged in. Only about half of the original amount remained, as all of the losers (with the exception of an unharmed Sagino) had taken the other exit from the arena to be cased by medic-nin.

 _The next round of fights are..._ Kame glanced around himself for the visual aid. _Haku against Sureki, Gunaji against Tetsute- wait, if Haku and Tetsute each win their fights, then they'll go up against each other_. The thought of Tetsute hitting her with his genjutsu and defeating her in such a humiliating manner in front of the crowd of thousands made Kame's blood boil, but with any luck it would be Gunaji up against Haku.

 _Miriki's against Dako last_ , he thought, but his mind was centered on the fight before that: _I'm up against Naruko._ The thought shook him more than he'd care to admit, a storm of combined eagerness to make her suffer for what she'd done and fear of the pain she'd inflict on him-

 _No_ , Kame realized, _that's not it_. He wasn't afraid of losing because it would mean her hurting him, he was afraid of losing because it would mean her hurting Miriki and Haku in the next fights. Nervous anticipation began to build as he worried more and more, the mounting dread making him start to actually feel a little sick-

It was cut off by the proctor's eager shouting heralding the end of the break. "From the Hidden Leaf side, we have the Hyuga heir, master of the Gentle Fist- although, those fists can be pretty rough if you're the one receiving them! Ladies and gentlement, please put your hands together for… Sureki Hyuga!" The slight boy hurried to the center of the field, looking awkward as his entrance was met with scattered clapping. Kame noted that the boy's dark lower-leg covers were gone, as were the leg weights they typically housed underneath.

Knowing what would come next, Kame turned to Haku and murmuerd, "Good luck," as she started to move towards the stairs. She nodded and smiled, and then was gone down the dark steps, leaving Kame to bring his gaze back to the field and await her emergence there.

"And now, from the Hidden Sand corner, we have another master of physical attacks, someone who took down the Hidden Cloud's brightest prodigy without using a single jutsu… let's give a warm welcome to Haku!" Haku strode forward somewhat self-consciously, ditching the leg weights like Sureki had.

The two of them lined up in the central area of the arena, facing each other with clear tension visible in the air between them. Finally, Sureki turned to face the front row of the stands, and Kame followed his gaze to see (just barely) what looked like Rock Lee, Shira, Kankuro, Deihaka, Senshiko, and some other jonin in the vests of various villages watching. _Is that area reserved for the teachers…?_

Sureki cleared his throat, then said quietly, more to himself than anyone else, "Thank you for this opportunity, Lee-sensei."

Haku took the cue and followed suite. "Thank you, Shira-sensei."

Sureki seemed hesitant about something, but gathered his courage soon enough and spoke to Haku: "Would you... would you mind... could we do this with only taijutsu? No elemental attacks, or illusions, or clones, or substitutions?"

For the second time in the last half hour, Kame could barely believe what was happening. For Sureki to gimp himself down to Haku's level- he flinched. _That's a harsh way of putting it, but..._ for Sureki to opt out of using much more of his arsenal than Haku would give up by sacrificing her Lightning Stance would be a godsend for the kunoichi.

Haku was silent for a brief stretch, then responded "If you're trying to do this for me out of _pity_ -"

"No!" Sureki shook his head fervently. "No, I want to do it to honor Lee and Shira. To do things the way they had to do it in _their_ chunin exams, right?"

A grin slowly spread across Haku's face. "Then yes, absolutely."

Sureki glanced at the proctor. "Kenken-sensei?"

The proctor- _Kenken's his name_ , noted Kame- seemed to snap out of a daydream at the prodding from Sureki. "Oh! Ready?"

They both nodded, slipping into their taijutsu stance- Haku her Desert Wind, Sureki his modified hybrid of the Gentle Fist and Dancing Leaf.

"Then let's get started! Three! Two! One! Go!"

The instant the words left his mouth, the two genin were upon each other. Haku launched a right hook, but even as it was dodged she also swung out a sweeping leg. Sureki dove forward over the leg and under her guard, swinging a fist towards her stomach, but somehow Haku twisted out of the way and rolled backwards. There was a brief half-second lull, and then they engaged again, this time staying together. Even when Haku was close to Kame, often she was almost a blur to him when moving at her top speeds, so with the fight happening a good fifteen meters below and thirty meters away from him, he couldn't make out most of the individual punches and kicks being thrown.

The crowd, stunned at first, began to let out a dull murmur in an awed tone. _If even I can barely make the occasional blow, the civilians way up there must be completely out of their depth,_ Kame realized. Then it finally dawned on him why exactly the chunin exams were still a spectator sport despite the fact that the old reasoning (of them being a way for the nations to work out their animosity outside of open war) was theoretically no longer necessary. _It's the nations' way of keeping civilians in line by showing them just how strong even beginner ninja are_. More than that, it occurred to him that showing civilians any fights between jonin-level or higher ninja would be pointless- they wouldn't be able to discern anything through the raw speed present. _Genin, though, especially exceptional genin, are prime entertainment._

 _I feel like I should be offended, but..._ Kame couldn't bring himself to complain about a chance to fight other opponents near his skill level in a controlled setting, especially as an opportunity to prove himself before-

 _Oh, god_. His fight with Naruko would be in front of all these people. The gathered Kage, important jonin from his village, and civilians from all over the Land of Fire and beyond would all be watching him. _If I lose, then I'll end up..._

His attention was brought right back to the match at hand as the two combatants each unleashed a blow with more weight behind it- Haku a punch, Sureki an open-palm strike- which directly connected with one another and let out a _thoom_ upon impact that sounded more like a muted explosion than something made by two human hands. _If either of them got near me in a real fight, I'd be done for,_ Kame thought.

Finally, Sureki seemed to land a solid palm-strike onto Haku's midriff, which discharged a barely visible burst of blue chakra. Haku made up for it by kneeing the Hyuga in his stomach, and the two once again backed off momentarily. Sureki let out a long breath and appeared to center himself, saying, "I'll show you and everyone here why I am worthy to inherit Lee-sensei's Nindo." The ground around him rippled slightly and a hazy aura shimmered into being around him: "Open, First Gate: Gate of Opening!"

Haku set herself as well, responding in a voice that was almost… _happy? Why is she so happy?_ "First Heaven: Breath of Restraint!" The air around her began to warp slightly, shimmering like a heat devil as her chakra swelled to match Sureki's.

"Open, the Second Gate: Gate of Rest!" Kame's gaze turned back to Sureki, but-

"Second Heaven: Breath of Strength!" _What!? Again with this technique..._ Kame knew that opening the eight inner gates had a brutal cost, and if this was any indication Haku's Seven Heavens might well have one, too. Her muscles became more pronounced and her hair began drifting as thought gravity's pull on it had weakened.

"Third Gate: Gate of Life! Open!" Sureki's voice held noticeable strain in it as the ground at his feet began to chip away and crack from the power he emitted. His skin actually changed color into a reddened state, veins pulsing through his skin. _How long is this going to go on? Won't they-_

Then Sureki disappeared from Kame's view and reappeared behind Haku, who was somehow already mid-turn to deal with him. "Eight Trigrams: Two Palms!" Both attacks were redirected by Haku. "Four Palms! Eight Palms! Sixteen Palms!" To Kame, the blows seemed to come so fast that they were a blur of white sleeve and pale skin in the air before Sureki, but Haku managed to keep all of them from making any serious contact.

"Thirty-Two Palms!" This time, a few of them got through her guard and staggered her backwards. _This is bad,_ Kame realized, _in that state she'll be off-balance for the-_ "Sixty-Four Palms!" The barrage of attacks came in the space of only three seconds, but almost all of them made solid contact with Haku. _I know she did well against him before, and he said that he couldn't hit her tenketsu points, but there has to be a limit… I've read about how Gentle Fist users can destroy the internal organs of their targets!_

Haku slid to a stop, the ground cracking behind her feet. She seemed to open her mouth to say something else, but before she could say anything Sureki's voice filled the field. "The Gentle Fist of my clan is considered perfect, swaddled in tradition and passed down exactly as it has been for generations." _Where is he going with this?_ "Sixty-Four Palms hits all sixty-four chakra points in the human body, so anything else would be… unnecessary." Sureki lowered into a dash, coming at Haku with arms held ready. "But you know what? I won't be held back by the limitations of tradition. In this state, I can go far beyond what my ancestors deemed possible! _Sixteen_ Trigrams: One-Hundred-Twenty-Eight Palms!"

 _Oh, no._ Sureki battered Haku with even more strikes than before, and this time she was thoroughly outclassed. The other boy's speed and accuracy, coupled with the strength increase from opening the gates, was far too much for Haku to deal with, and she was battered back and then up into the air. For a moment, she hung there, and then Sureki appeared behind her in a move that Kame knew all too well. _No… I don't think she can take that and still-_

"Third Heaven: Breath of Speed!" In the blink of an eye, Haku was no longer in the air before her opponent, instead standing halfway across the arena. The ground between where she had been and where she was now was ripped into shredded fragments, and the chips of earth at her feet were floating from the sheer chakra in the air. _How is she… I was watching her the whole time, but she moved faster than I could even register!_

Sureki landed on the earth, red skin and muscles failing to cover up the fact that he was breathing heavily- but so was Haku. Both fighters looked winded, but they straightened. The third breath had again altered Haku's appearance, increasing the slight distortion around her and causing her eyes to begin exuding a slight warm glow. A few seconds of standoff passed, this time without any banter or words to fill it-

Then the two of them simply disappeared and the fight reached a level of speed far beyond the ability of Kame's untrained eyes to comprehend. The two of them became little more than streaks of white and purple tearing across the battlefield, becoming visible only for the brief moments where their blows connected. The crowd's silence turned into a dull roar of people's disbelief or praise at the display, and Kame heard Tetsute's sharp intake of breath behind him. _This is what you bullied,_ Kame thought a bit too smugly.

"I… will… not… disappoint… Lee-sensei!" Sureki's defiant voice sounded out as they solidified a bit, locked in a fierce exchange of blows in the middle of the arena.

"I won't lose!" Haku's shout went right back. Kame could barely pick out flashes of them through the whirlwind of blows- _it's impossible to tell who's winning now… I just have to hope._

Sureki suddenly spun and unleashed an expanding sphere of chakra around him. "Sixteen Trigrams: Rotation!" Compared to when he'd used it against Kakuzen, the hurricane of chakra surrounding him was larger and far more vicious, forcing Haku to dart back. _Isn't this breaking the taijutsu-only rule?_ Kame frowned and leaned forward, contemplating what the addition of Rotation would bring to the battle's dynamic. Haku couldn't attack without being batted aside by the jutsu, which meant she'd have to blitz Sureki in between uses.

Sureki again shot forward, sending a palm strike directly towards Haku's chest. Rather than blocking it, she diverted the blow aside by hitting the inside of his arm and then sending her off hand on a collision course with his head. He spun off the blow and _kept_ spinning, turning his dodge into another "Rotation!"

Haku was forced to roll backwards but came back with legs bent in a sprinter's starting pose, watching Sureki's swirling sphere of chakra intently. The moment it faltered, she disappeared into a streak of purple, shattering the earth at her starting point, and came in with a tackle that bulled right through the last dregs of blue energy. Her dive caught Sureki at the waist and slammed him down hard enough to again shatter the earth of the arena, before pinning him using her left arm and legs while raising the right arm for a potentially fight-ending blow.

The fist came sailing down with a visible halo of chakra poured into it, but Sureki miraculously managed shift himself enough to just barely avoid the blow.

Instead, it slammed into the earth hard enough to crater the ground in a five meter radius and discharged a blast of purple-tinted energy. By the time the shattered fragments of rock had landed, Sureki was back outside the cratered area in a stance once more, waiting for Haku to charge, and the moment she did- "Sixteen Trigrams: Sustained Rotation!"

The two-meter-radius dome of rotating chakra spun back into existence around him, knocking Haku back, but this time... this time it wasn't stopping. The Hyuga boy moved forward still surrounded by his wall of destructive chakra, forcing Haku to move back further and further. _She can't get to him while he's in there,_ some part of Kame realized. _This might be bad…_

Haku hesitated, narrowing her eyes, and then lowered herself into a sprinting position and took off towards Sureki's left. _What is she doing?_ She quickly transcended his eyes' ability to track her with any detail, blurring into a streak of purple that went around and around Sureki, and then closed in. _Wait, is she…_ Her form pushed into the spinning wall of chakra and then seemed to _merge_ with it, turning to a line of purple that spiraled further and further inwards until it met the center. By moving in sync with the chakra's currents, she'd avoided being knocked aside and closed the distance.

Then it all went away and Sureki was blasted backwards, head tilted back from Haku's violent uppercut. He might have gone flying but was stopped, eyes shooting down to see that Haku had snatched one of his legs with her arms: "I have people that I won't disappoint as well!" Somehow, Kame knew that he was one of them.

She half-turned and levered his leg against her shoulder to bring him swinging up and over her before landing another blow against his stomach, rotating him upside-down in midair. He attempted a recovery strike of some sort against her shoulder but she simply grinned an oddly terrifying smile and powered through it, bringing her left fist thundering around and slamming into his chin before slamming him head-first against the ground- this time, not pulling her punch and sending a spiderweb of cracks as well as an explosion of soil and stone exploding from the point of impact. "Desert Burial!"

Sureki, who by some miracle still had a jaw that appeared to be in one piece, didn't get up, leaving Haku's three heavens to fade away from her and leave her standing there, still bearing the scorch marks and looking more exhausted than Kame had ever seen her, but... triumphant.

A few stunned seconds later, Kenken shouted: "And in an incredible final combination attack, we have our first entrant for the first semifinal match! Winner by knockout: Haku!"

The crowd exploded in cheering, the loudest yet for any match, as a tired Haku turned and began to trudge off the field. She seemed so incredibly haggard, in a sharp contrast to the physical domination she'd just demonstrated, almost as though a strong wind could knock her over. Kame watched as the medic-nin removed Sureki, the proctor announced the next match between Tetsute and Gunaji, but even the arrival of Haku back in the box to stand next to him couldn't shake him from his worried stupor as he realized what was coming.

Kame tried and failed to pay attention as the two Earth Style specialists launched their attacks, but every time he closed his eyes he could see the blood-red circle of the Sharingan. _If I lose, Naruko probably beats the semifinalist, and then... best-case she's up against Tetsute, but... worst-case, she'll be up against Haku. She's a genjutsu specialist... I won't- no, I can't allow her to beat me_.

Lost in his worrying, he dimly registered Tetsute winning the round, meaning he'd be guaranteed to face Haku tomorrow. He barely even noticed Haku and Miriki wishing him luck as he strode down the steps, out to the center of the field, where his foe was already waiting for him.

"Well? No dumb technicality to save you this time, is there?" Naruko smirked at him, so different from Miriki's- where Kame's friend's smirk radiated a calm sort of amusement, Naruko's was filled with a deep malice.

 _Why does she hate me like this?_ Kame thought, but the answer didn't really make a difference. She was there, and he had to beat her- to protect Haku and avenge his friends. He dimly registered Kenken's theatrics, but most of his attention was commanded by the girl in front of him- in her eyes, which were already in their Sharingan state. "Three! Two! One!" _Shit, have to look away before the round starts and she can hit me with the genjutsu!_ "Go!"

Kame retreated slowly, ever-careful to watch for her attacks while also avoiding her eyes. Meanwhile, he ordered Wasp to circle around through the treeline. _I was incredibly stupid to think I'd be able to handle Crow,_ Kame admitted to himself. _This is mentally taxing enough with a training puppet._

Naruko didn't move from her starting position, keeping track of the moving puppet with quick glances. Once it moved far enough behind her, she put her fingers into the cross-sign: "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Four shadow clones appeared around her, two of them moving back towards Wasp and two of them moving forward at Kame. _Okay, shadow clones take a lot of chakra, but have no elemental weaknesses… they still break more easily than a real human, though._

He ordered Wasp to rise into the air and send off a quick barrage of needles towards the clones, while tossing forward a firebomb airplane and detonating it between the two clones assigned to him. He heard two pops, but the two clones coming at him had dodged the explosion and the napalm. _Okay, so now there's an ignited section of the field, have to keep that in mind._

He turned Wasp towards Naruko and fired off two needles- but not at her. The shots flew true and went straight towards the two clones still approaching him, who turned around to block the attacks. With their backs to him, it was easy for him to unleash two shuriken to put them out of commission. _I think I'm winning in the chakra department, then. Four clones that are already jonin-level to make should cost her more than moving Wasp around cost me. Time for me to go on the offensive, then._

Kame threw a windbomb to the ground at his feet and, still keeping an eye on Naruto's body, took out a kunai, wrapping a weakened bomb around the hilt. Naruko turned quickly, and he had to turn his attention to what she was doing: _Making handsigns, I think that's-_ "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Unable to look at her face but still seeing the glow of flames starting, Kame ducked backwards, but quickly realized his error- _That's not coming at me, it's coming at Wasp._ He yanked the puppet downwards, and it narrowly evaded the cone of fire.

 _Okay, now-_ "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Three more Narukos ran forward towards Kame, and he had to use a weakened bomb- _Wait, no, there's still one on the kunai._ He grabbed the kunai and threw it at the charging enemies, making the sign to detonate it and taking out two of them. "Fireball Jutsu!" He instinctively yanked Wasp backwards, but this one was coming at _him_ instead. Without enough time to truly dodge it, the flames clipped his leg and sent searing pain running through it. _I'm not all the way back from my fight with Genji._

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!" _Shit, another one!?_ Kame looked up and saw the flaming projectiles already far too close, and had only one real option left. He made the sign to detonate the windbomb he'd dropped at his feet- and nothing happened. _What!?_ He looked down and saw that it had been reduced to smoldering tatters by the fireball he'd dodged earlier. _This is bad, I'm slipping-_

The first of the fireballs caught his uninjured leg, sending a spiderweb of pain shooting up his nerves. Despite the horror of being burned, he had to swallow his reactions and managed to dodge the next three fireballs. For the first time since the fight had started, Kame had a moment to think. _She's chaining her attacks and abusing the fact that I can't meet her eyes, not giving me any time to formulate any plans of my own. If this keeps up, she'll chip me down bit by bit…_

Kame looked back up towards Naruko's chest. _Playing for time is my only real option here, so…_ "Hey, Naruko! Tell me something: why are you so hateful towards people from villages that you've never even been to?"

She snorted, and although he couldn't see her expression he could tell from her tone of voice that she was disgusted. "Are you complaining about being beaten? Is this what the ninja world is, now? A game, where people hold your hand and everyone's nice all the time?"

"The ninja world was never a place where genin tortured other genin for no reason."

"I won every single round up to here." She was more bitter than aggressive now. "I beat you _and_ those Valley losers in the opening test, I put that purple-haired girl out of commission with one attack. You're a ninja, in a fight with another ninja from a rival village, so drop the goody-two-shoes act and _fight me_!" The last two words were accompanied by a shuriken that Kame deflected using his kunai.

 _She's not wrong,_ he thought helplessly. _Am I just a weakling who isn't cut out for the ninja world? Did I paint some fake image of the shinobi world as a place where friendship and honor are the most important things?_ Kame remembered all the stories of Naruto he'd read, the tales where his perseverance and kindness won over everyone to his side. _Is that just a pipe dream?_ "Your grandfather doesn't believe in that kind of shinobi world." He heard her breath hitch and knew he'd struck a nerve.

"My grandfather, the _honorable seventh Hokage_ , is…" _She's struggling to say something._ Her voice hitched and Kame had a sneaking suspicion that her face was pained. "The real world, the ninja world, isn't…" Naruko trailed off again, this time glancing up towards where the Kage were sitting. _She won't say it in front of Naruto._

Kame did his best to surreptitiously drop another windbomb on the ground just behind him, but it was far too much to expect to get away with. Naruko's all-seeing sharingan must have picked up on it, because she dropped into a ready stance and lost the indecision in her voice. "But it doesn't matter. What matters is me passing this test, and you're standing in my path."

 _Alright, back to the fighting. I can't afford to mentally fall apart again._ Kame pulled out three shuriken and flung them at her, simultaneously twitching the finger to send off one of Wasp's legs to Naruko's left. He'd led the shuriken slightly to the right, so she was open to dodge to the left fairly easily… but she saw through his attack and jumped straight up into the air. _She can't turn or dodge in midair, so…_ he fired a second leg towards her. _Did I get her? This easily?_

He caught the faintest glimpse of a cocky grin on her face, and then she shouted, "Wind Style: Wind Cushion Jutsu!" _What? I made that one up yesterday, how… the Sharingan can already replicate it?_ She was launched off to the side by the small gust of wind, and landed expertly before using another shadow clone jutsu for four more of herself. _Back to square one._

Still, she couldn't keep this up forever. Her chakra had to be running low at this point, while Kame was still in great shape. He tossed a few shuriken at the two clones that were charging him, lifting Wasp a bit higher to avoid its two clones' attacks. The clones coming at him deflected the hastily thrown shuriken and just kept coming, forcing him to use another weakened bomb airplane against them, as well as two more shuriken. They had to focus on the shuriken, allowing the plane to sail between them and destroy both of them.

 _Wait…_ Kame thought of a plan and threw together two more weakened bomb airplanes, launching them towards the real Naruko _almost_ simultaneously. She looked forward at the approaching plane and threw a single shuriken at it. _Yes…_ His version of the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu had worked, and the second one, hidden in the shadow of the first, was too close for her to dodge it. A quick handsign detonated the bomb mere feet away from her, and-

She disappeared in a puff of smoke. _What!? When did she…_ One of the clones attacking Wasp finished making the necessary signs. "Wind Style: Inescapable Grasp!" Wasp was yanked towards her, and she swung towards it. _Shit!_

Kame rapidly threw together his own jutsu, shouting, "Wind Style: Wind Barrier!" At the last second, a whirling cloud of air appeared around Wasp, throwing off her strike just enough to keep it in one piece- but Kame's hastily thrown together jutsu was unstable and sputtered out almost immediately afterwards. _Okay, now I have to get Wasp out of there. If I try to fly it out normally, she'll almost definitely knock it out of the sky…_

He knew what he had to do. He targeted Wasp, and- "Substitution Jutsu!" Now _he_ was the one mere feet away from the angry kunoichi. Immediately upon arrival, he saw her hands start to make a tiger seal and realized how much danger he was in. However, doing his best to remain calm, he locked eyes onto a rock near the river and… "Substitution!" _Okay, now me and Wasp are both out of-_ turning around, he saw the Naruko had turned and finished her jutsu, still aimed at him.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!" The barrage of fireballs streaked across the battlefield towards Kame, and he had mere seconds to get out of the way. Acting on some sort of instinct, he _retargeted_ the rock, still in midair, and repeated the jutsu he'd already used twice in the last few seconds.

"Substitution!" Back next to Naruko, he forced himself to avoid looking into her eyes and dropped a weakened bomb, then gathered his (rapidly depleting) chakra and pushed it out of his feet. "Wind Style: Wind Cushion Jutsu!" He was flung forward by his protesting, still-burned legs, pushing himself _too_ hard this time but still managing to make the correct detonation handsign before crashing into the ground. There was an explosion from behind him and a scream, and then he crashed face-first into the dirt.

Kame struggled back onto his feet, turning around slowly to view his handiwork. There was a small blast crater, and Naruko was flattened to the ground, back smoking and vest completely shredded. Kenken stepped forward, but before he could reach her to take her pulse she growled and moved her arms to her sides, lifting herself up to a kneeling position. At the last second, Kame remembered not to look at her face, but from what he'd seen she was beyond furious.

 _This is bad,_ Kame thought. _I'm down to three weakened bombs and five windbombs, and my chakra's at about twenty percent. Still… I've pushed her further than anyone else has so far. Come on Kame, finish what you started._ He gritted his teeth and lifted Wasp from the ground where it had crashed, then willed it to fly towards him while he retreated into the trees. _She can't see me in here, so I should have a small period of relative safety._

However, as Wasp returned to arm's reach and he leaped into the branches, Naruko was still sitting on her knees. _Did I make her so upset- no, that's just wishful thinking. She's probably thinking through how she's gonna end this match, which means that I have to do a better job planning than her._ He looked over at Wasp, which was hovering beside him, and once again a stupid plan occurred to him.

 _No, come on, I can't do that… but, what else…?_ Finally, his mental wrestling ended as he grabbed Wasp and the weakened bombs in his pocket, then plastered the three remaining ones onto it. _Master Kankuro, please don't hate me._ Kame moved as stealthily as he could to the left, hopping from tree to tree until he was behind the kneeling Naruko. _Is she still sitting there? Is she chakra exhausted from all those shadow clones?_

Kame dropped Wasp to a lower height and then tossed two kunai at Naruko, who made no move to dodge. _Wait, those might kill her if she-_ he leaned forward in horror, but that proved to be a mistake as the kunai passed harmlessly through the illusory genjutsu. _Oh, crap._ He leaped from the tree, yanking Wasp with him, and rolled to a stop on the ground just before the spot where he'd been sitting went up in flames. A quick glance around revealed that the real Naruko was emerging from the forested section across the field from him.

He stumbled to his feet and charged at her, trying to ignore the pain in both legs from his earlier burns. Naruko made a noise of confusion as he closed the distance, readying his chakra in one of his hands held behind him. Finally he saw her hands come to her chest and make a series of signs, finally hearing her say: "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu."

 _This is it,_ he thought while diving forward and swinging his arm around in front of him.. "Wind Style: Gale Force Jutsu!" The resulting blast of wind thrust his diagonal body forwards and upwards, flying right over Naruko. While in the air, he saw Naruko apparently drop her jutsu and turn slowly to track his movement. With his chakra almost completely gone, Kame forced himself to use up even more. "Wind Style: Wind Cushion Jutsu!" He managed to unleash enough wind to push him backward in midair, so that while Naruko turned to meet him he went back the way he came and crashed to the ground behind her back.

 _Shit, I'm pretty much out of chakra,_ Kame thought. _But… no. I won't let it end like this._ Through force of will, he reached out and targeted something he was already linked to. Using up the last vestiges of chakra he had left, he shouted, "Substitution Jutsu!" Then he was on the ground beside a tree, and Wasp was in the air where he'd been.

With shaking hands, he made the detonation handsign, and Naruko disappeared in an explosion of three weakened paperbombs.

 _I think… I did it._ Kame collapsed onto the ground, leaning back against the tree and allowing a faint smile to creep onto his face.

_I won._

That thought was still fresh in his mind as Naruko emerged from behind a tree, walked up to him, and then ran through the signs that he now knew to represent the fireball jutsu. _What!? Was the one I just killed… a clone? But…_ _I used up everything… I hit her with all that I could._

In his state, completely used up and watching Naruko finish setting up her jutsu, after using every trick and attack he could think of to no effect, he gave in. "I forfeit."

She didn't even stop, running through the rest of her signs and raising her hands to her mouth- but before she could finish it, Proctor Kenken was standing between them. "Winner by forfeit: Naruko Uchiha!" Still in a daze, Kame struggled to his feet, seeing Naruko glare at him as he limped off towards the losers' exit. He briefly considered turning around, but immediately decided against it. _I can't face Haku and Miriki right now._

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry (Active Genin) (Hidden Leaf):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Genin Evaluation Data: Naruko Uchiha**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _She's got the Sharingan and knows how to use it, plus she's damn good at Fire Style_

Genjutsu: A  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _Kid's got the damn Sharingan. Do you Union idiots not know how_ [Redacted for Unprofessionalism] _._

Taijutsu: B  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Kenken Tagimata) Notes: _She's decent, but never has to use it._

Appearance: _Age fifteen. Average height (5'4"), average build, black hair and eyes. Typically clad in clothing demonstrating Uchiha heritage more than Hyuga or Uzumaki, primarily dark blues and blacks._

Attitude: _Dismissive but not hostile to classmates and peers, avoided problems up until missions put her in contact with shinobi from other villages. Troubling problems cooperating with non-Leaf Shinobi._

History: _Born to Sarada Uchiha and Boruto Uzumaki, highly honored in childhood, especially after father_ [Redacted] _. Did not opt for early academy entrance or graduation but passed all classes with flying colors, proceeded to earn a high success rate in genin missions with the exception of inter-village cooperative missions. Series of incidents on aforementioned inter-village cooperative missions perhaps the basis for not entering chunin exams at first option, instead passing a full year as a genin beforehand._


	19. The Losers

Kame walked down the long hallway, but it didn't lead out of the arena as he'd hoped. Instead he found himself walking up a set of stairs that opened back out into the arena. Standing there, he saw Miriki and Dako walking out onto the field. _I guess I might as well see which of these two pays the price for my failure, huh?_

"Hey, Kame! Over here!" Kame looked up to see Genji waving him over, pointing to an empty seat. He settled in next to his fellow Sand genin, saying nothing, and Genji looked at him with worry but didn't push the matter. _Good,_ Kame thought, _I need some time._ The two of them lapsed into silence and watched the match before them unfold.

Miriki was smiling, completely unharmed from his victory earlier and seemingly unperturbed by Kame's loss. Dako was like a polar opposite, huge and thick compared to Miriki's thin and graceful. His hair was light to Miriki's black, his skin dark to Miriki's pale, and even his stance was serious while Miriki's was casual. Kenken looked back and forth between them, then shouted: "And now, the final match of the quarterfinals, it's the silent giant of the Hidden Cloud village against the too-cool-for-school ladies' man of the Hidden Sand! On your marks… get set… go!"

Kame's teammate grinned and spoke in an off-handed way. "Hey, Dako. Let's be real here, you can't use _his_ power during the tournament without setting off all sorts of bells and whistles, right?"

The larger boy narrowed his eyes. "No." _What's that supposed to mean?_

"Annnd… Kosu and Zandeina. They both got knocked out." Dako took an angry step forward, but Miriki held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. "Hey, hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not making fun of them… but honestly, though, why are you fighting me here? I don't think they're going to promote you alone, and neither of them made very impressive showings, so…"

Dako narrowed his eyes but didn't attack. "What are you saying?"

Miriki shrugged, holding his hands out to the sides. "I mean… you don't really have very much to gain here. Even if you won this thing, both you and Zandeina aren't very cohesive people, so they won't promote you and then try to find another teammate for her, right?" Dako didn't respond. "Plus, they won't promote Kosu after that showing… your squad just isn't gonna get passed, dude."

Dako growled, making a few handsigns. "Water Style: Water Bullet!" A mass of water formed in front of him and then jetted towards Miriki, who neatly sidestepped it.

"Woah there, just calm-" Another bullet went flying towards him, and he had to duck under it. "-down, dude. I just-" A third bullet forced him to roll the the side. "-want to talk!"

Dako grimaced. "I don't like talking."

Miriki smirked. "Then why not just listen? So, I suggest you give up, because I'd rather not spend any more chakra fighting you and you have no reason to fight me." _What the hell? Is this seriously his angle?_ Kame was yanked out of his sullen self-disappointment by the familiar feeling of frustration towards Miriki. _You idiot, do you really think he's just going to surrender?_

"I do have a reason to fight." Dako entered a ready stance.

"Oh, I see, to impress Zandeina." Miriki smiled knowingly, but then had to dive to the ground as Dako sent another water bullet whizzing towards his head. "I saw her fight, man. Do you really think she's the type to fall for someone who surpasses her?" He climbed to his feet, dusting himself off. "Trust me, when it comes to the ladies I know exactly what they want." The entire arena fell briefly silent with disbelief. "And what that girl wants is to have a personal fan club. You know as well as I do that when Torino-sensei didn't acknowledge her strength she took it poorly, so what makes you think that you'll be any different?"

Dako froze. _Oh my god, is this actually working?_ Kame resolved to never doubt Miriki again if the Kosuki boy somehow managed to win without launching a single attack. However, the Cloud shinobi grunted and shook his head. "Nah, I don't think I'm gonna forfeit in front of the Raikage." He flashed through another set of handsigns and held out his hand. "Water Style: Depth Charge!"

The ground in front of him broke open in a miniature geyser, and then again a few feet forward, a string of mini-geysers popping up one after another, forming a line towards Miriki. "Oh, come on. Can't a guy have a nice, calm conversation without being attacked over and over?" _Miriki, why…_

He ran off towards the left, but the geysers kept after him. _So it's a tracking-type jutsu, huh? In that case, he needs to wait until the last second when it confirms his location, then dodge before it goes off._ Miriki did not do that, instead opting to keep mouthing off: "Anyway, for real dude, can you just call this thing off me?" _What the hell are you- he's your opponent, he's not going to just let you off for free!_

Dako furrowed his brow in confusion and opened his mouth to reply, but closed it and shook his head in exasperation instead. Miriki ran up the side of a tree and the jutsu following him imploded at the last point where he'd touched the ground, uprooting the trunk he was attached to. In a shriek of twisting wood, the tree fell over and crashed into the ground in a cloud of dust, leaves and splinters. _Well, I guess that's that. Dako is the one going up against Naruko, and-_

Miriki came jogging out from over by the river, unshakeable smirk still present on his face. "Okay, now that you've let out all that unnecessary aggression, can we get back to-"

"Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!" Dako fired off another attack, and Miriki dodged it like the others.

"That's just rude, man. What's your problem?"

"What's _my_ problem!?" Dako looked about as blown away by that statement as Kame was. _Miriki's trying to have a goddamn discussion in the middle of the chunin exams, and somehow Dako's the one who's in the wrong!?_

"Well, I'm glad you asked-"

"No."

"-because the issue here-"

"No!"

"-is that your attitude-"

"NO!" Dako yelled. "No more! You're the most annoying person I've ever met! Why the hell do you talk so much!?"

Miriki grinned. "Well, obviously, I'm playing for time."

Dako stepped back suspiciously. "Huh? Why-"

"Because I poisoned you with Highriver Serpent venom right as the match started, and now it's just a matter of time before your body stops working." Miriki's grin remained exactly the same despite the very different words coming from his mouth. "In fact, you should be feeling it right about now."

Dako flinched and raised a hand to his mouth, eyes crinkling in confusion. "What is- Grrkk!" He grunted in discomfort and then seemed to realize what was going on, making the basic chakra-focusing handsign. "G- Genjutsu Release!" _That's not going to do it,_ Kame thought, _you have to… nope._ When nothing happened, instead of retaining his disbelief in what was going on, Dako panicked and started breathing heavily.

"Yeah, the antidote is pretty simple, just some extract of etherweed- which I'm betting you don't have on you?" Miriki put his hands on his hips and shook his head. "Unlucky you. But, if you forfeit, you can leave the arena and get some from the medical ninja. Or, you can wait for the paralysis to set in, collapse in front of everyone, and _then_ the medical ninja will bring it to you. Of course, that's only _after_ the minute or so of insanity and another five minutes of crippling pain and hallucinations." Miriki sighed and sat down with his legs crossed. "Your choice. Of course, you can always try to take me out in the next couple of seconds- but most likely you'll miss and look like an idiot. Hey, I'll tell you what: if you concede and decrease the work for me, then I promise not to make a move on Zandeina later."

Dako glowered, but gradually the hatred drained from his face, replaced with the sullen impassiveness he'd worn for most of the tournament. "I… ugh…" he winced and spat on the ground in disgust. "I forfeit." The second the words left his mouth, he frowned, moved his mouth around a bit, and then widened his eyes in horror. "What… how did…"

Miriki was already walking back up towards the other victors, hands in his pockets. Behind him, Dako waved a medical ninja over, but the Hyuga man seemed to look at him and then shrug. Even worse, the man's response was amplified by the sound increasing jutsu, so near-everyone in the arena heard what he said: "I don't think the Highriver Serpent is real, and if there _is_ such a thing as extract of etherweed, I've never heard of it." The Cloud genin's face hardened in rage, but the doctor continued (seemingly oblivious to the fact that his words were being blared out to everyone in the stadium). "To be honest, kid, I think you've been had."

Kenken seemed to finally find his voice. "Alright then, folks! Miriki defeats Dako using seemingly only his words in a… disappointing lack of action, to be honest." His voice dropped to a more personal tone, but then jumped right back into his energetic yell. "Come back tomorrow on day two of the chunin exams final tournament, for a day of heart-pounding excitement and intense battle!" _It comes down to those four,_ Kame thought. _Naruko, Miriki, Haku, and Tetsute._

* * *

"I'm telling you, don't beat yourself up over it." Miriki patted Kame on the back as they walked towards the arena exit. "Like I said before: striving to achieve _my_ level of awesomeness is just a completely lost cause, so don't hold yourself to that standard. Just because I won my battle, doesn't mean-"

"Miriki?" Haku said calmly. When he trailed off, she continued: "Stop talking."

Kame glanced over at his kunoichi teammate. _That's a lot more… direct… than she is usually. Is this because of the upcoming match with Tetsute?_ She turned to meet his eyes and he coughed, "Uhmm… so, do you guys want to do dinner, or…?"

* * *

Kame couldn't help but wonder how he'd ended up in this mess. _I thought this was gonna be a huge group dinner with everyone. How did we go from twelve people to one person in all of ten minutes? Deihaka disappearing with Senshiko and Miriki with Keikiro is to be expected, but… I guess it's my bad for expecting Shira, Rock Lee, Sureki, and Haku to all just sit still at a meal._ (The four taijutsu users had split off for a 'Gloriously Youthful Last-Minute Training Extravaganza'). _Then Gunaji leaves with Kakuzen, and Sagino goes along with them for god knows what reason, and now I'm walking into Ichiraku's alone._

He tried not to be bitter, but it was pretty difficult. Despite his rational mind knowing that it wasn't the case, he couldn't help but feel abandoned by the people who'd won where he'd lost.

 _That's right,_ he remembered. _I lost. Hard. I used up every drop of my chakra and had to forfeit before she did to me what she did to Keikiro._ _Now Miriki and Haku are put into the same boat, all because I got cocky and fell for all of her tricks._ After his first successful explosive attack, she'd bolted and left both an illusion _and_ a clone, and he'd fallen for both.

 _Maybe it's better this way,_ Kame considered. _I needed a wake-up call. I might have tried to help Haku and tolerate Miriki, but at the end of the day I still looked down on them both. Even after almost dying on my first mission, I still thought that I was the linchpin, the strongest member of our team- but when I went up against a real threat, one-on-one, I fell apart. Hell, even now Haku's off training to get better while I'm-_

"Hey, Kame!" Suddenly, Haku was standing next to him, grinning and tilting her head. "Are you just gonna stand outside the restaurant, or…?"

"I… Haku!" Kame wasn't sure what to say. "You came back."

"Yeah, well, when I saw Sagino with the other two I realized that you were here and I know how…" She trailed off, but the unfinished sentiment hung heavy in the air. In a flash of guilt, Kame remembered himself leaving her to eat alone on the night where it had all changed. _I don't deserve her friendship, but…_ _she doesn't deserve to lose one of her only friends._ He said none of it, instead finally pushing aside the curtain to move towards the bar-

And immediately, _sorely_ regretted his decision, because sitting there were no less than five Kage whose genin had been in the exams. _Oh, holy-_ Kame immediately turned one-eighty degrees and tried to move out of the small restaurant before he made a fool out of himself in front of three _more_ Kage, but Haku was already walking in. _Does she not realize who the hell is sitting there!?_ "Haku, those are the-"

"Hey, Gaara-san!" She waved as she slid into a seat one away from him, smiling slightly.

He turned to see her (reacting strangely similarly to Kame's initial panic upon entering the shop), gagging slightly on his ramen with bulging eyes, glancing briefly at the four other village leaders behind him, and then tightly responded to her. "Haku. It's good to see you here, at this restaurant, _with the other Kage…_ "

She nodded, oblivious to Gaara's discomfort, before ordering a Naruto Special and looking over at Kame quizzically. _I guess I'm doing this, now…_ He shrugged and walked over to sit beside her, ordering his own food. _There are five S-class shinobi who decide the fate of nations sitting feet away from me._ He tried to gather up some willpower and start a conversation or something, but his voice failed him and the silence remained.

However, Haku did what he couldn't. "Anyway, I guess I'm missing the big training extravaganza, but… _eh_."

Kame smiled a little bit. _So she is closer to us normal humans, then._ "Rock Lee and Shira both at the same time a little bit too much?"

She squirmed a little bit. "No, but… okay, yes. Lee-senpai and Shira-sensei are amazing, but sometimes I want to be around you more." She colored brightly as the words left her mouth, ducking to look at the counter. "No, wait- I mean, people _like_ you, because you're less… energetic? No, less…"

As she searched for the right word, Kame filled it in for her. "Youthful?"

She snorted at the reference to Rock Lee's interesting personality, shedding the awkwardness. "Yeah… not that you're old, or anything, but… I don't know. You're funnier, too."

Now it was Kame's turn to duck his head down in a futile attempt to hide his blush. However, when the next statement came from his left, it wasn't from Haku like he'd expected. In a serious, gruff voice that he'd never heard before, someone asked them: "Sand kunoichi… Haku, right?" A quick glance revealed its source to be Shiryu, the Sixth Raikage, a middle-aged man with dark skin and a stony, impassive face. He, like three of the other four Kage, had apparently ditched his hat to reveal a clean-shaven head. "Where did you learn that technique that you used to defeat my daughter?"

 _Oh, shit… if he's looking for revenge, then-_ but Kame quickly realized that wasn't the case. The man appeared more curious than anything else, but Haku still froze up a little bit. _That's right, she doesn't even know that she has a kekkegenkai, much less that she's been using it._ Kame swept in to save her, speaking as confidently as he could to the Raikage. "Haku uses a chakra-reinforcement jutsu, with the addition that she can use nature changes. This is a new development for us as well, but my best guess is that while in her elemental 'stances' the respective elemental type is less effective against her?"

The Raikage briefly nodded, but then his brow furrowed and he started to ask another question. Gaara cut him off before he could do so- "Now, you can't expect her to give up all of her secrets before the finals, can you? Especially in front of Naruto, no less." _That's right,_ Kame remembered. _Gaara and Naruto are the only two left with genin still in the running._

The Kawakage spoke up, and Kame got his first good look at the man. While his appearance was hidden by a white cloth mask that covered up his entire face, his voice was raspy, like that of someone old or injured. "Actually, that looked more like a very distinctive ability to me… although, I never thought that I'd see it again."

 _Does he know?_ Kame knew that he had to change the topic as quickly as possible for Haku's sake. "So, Lord Hokage, Naruko seemed to have something against you when I fought her in my match." _Bad move, Kame, stop it._ "What was that about?" _Why!? Why would you bring that up, you moron?_

Naruto set his mouth in a line. "Naruko… well, she's had…" _Way to make your hero self-conscious in front of his peers, Kame._ "Her mother was killed a few years ago in an escort mission that turned out to be a trap. Those who asked for the escort were actually simply looking to capture a high-ranking Leaf shinobi, but she was killed in the struggle. The ones who perpetrated the act were captured and dealt with, but… Naruko blames the gradual unification of the ninja world for it."

Haku and Kames' food arrived, and while Haku dug in eagerly, Kame was hesitant. "But… Lord Hokage, why is she so vicious-" _Too far,_ he thought. "I mean, sorry, I'm just being a sore loser."

Naruto shook his head. "No, you're right to think that, and you're absolutely right for worrying about the person that two of your teammates will have to fight. I have had words with her about the extremes she's gone to, and I hope that she'll change…" he trailed off, leaving the bar uncomfortably silent.

Haku broke it when she raised her bowl towards Ayame. "Could I get another one?"

Kame started to eat his own food, and the Kage returned to their own conversations, leaving him and Haku together again. He looked over at her, and for some reason he grew uncomfortably aware of the fact that he was staring. _Has she always been this pretty?_ Kame knew he should probably turn away, but instead he sat completely still as she turned around to look at him. She tentatively smiled at him and he coughed, trying to think of something to say. "Uhmm…"

Haku's smile faded slightly as she seemed to remember something. "Kame, I just wanted to say that…" Kame's heartbeat thudded louder than he'd ever felt it before. "You shouldn't… don't beat yourself up over losing today."

He nodded quickly, tension of the situation gone, although a small part of him wished she _had_ taken it in the other direction. "I'm not beating myself up over it… at least, not anymore. I just wish that I could have protected you and Miriki from… well…"

She turned up from her food to face him, getting a little bit more serious. "I don't want to just be something for you to protect, though. I want to…" she trailed off.

Kame asked a question that had been digging at him for a long time. "Why do you want to become a shinobi?"

Haku glanced up at him sharply, and he momentarily worried that he'd struck a nerve. However, before he could apologize or backtrack, she just sighed and pushed her food back. "I don't really know. I think… I think at first, I wanted to get people to accept me, but…" _But when she tried, they didn't accept her, so…_ Kame felt awful for thinking it, but it was true. He knew, firsthand, how true it was. "I kept going because… what else would I do? I don't have any trade to learn, no family shop or farm to inherit, no… future."

Kame, acting on sheer instinct, grabbed her hand. Her gaze snapped up to meet his and she looked almost… scared, eyes wide with worry. "I…" _What do I say?_ "I think that you…" _Come on, Kame._ "I'm glad that you became a shinobi," he finally said as firmly as he could. "I like being on your team."

She flushed and swallowed, but the moment was broken when the Raikage at the other end of the counter stood up abruptly. "I'll see you all tomorrow," he said as he left, but some of the other Kage seemed to shush him for some reason. _Wait, were they watching us?_ Kame turned around quickly to see Gaara wearing an unreadable expression before the he could turn around and hide it. Naruto, on the other hand, made very little effort to hide the 'awww, that's adorable' face he was making.

The Tanikage also finished his food and stood. "Until tomorrow's fight, then." He exited the bar, white cloak with the green lettering fluttering behind him. _I wonder why he decided not to push the subject of Haku's kekkegenkai any further,_ Kame thought. When he turned back to Haku, she was polishing off the last of her third bowl and smiling at him.

"I'll pay for this one," she said, and before Kame could protest she was handing Ayame the money. When the transaction was done, she turned back to him and smiled one last time. "I'm going back to the inn, alright?" Kame wanted her to stay a bit longer, but didn't say anything as she left, trying to ignore the nagging memory of his abject failure to do the same thing back in Sunagakure. Naruto left as well, leaving Gaara and Kame alone at the bar. The silence hung thick and heavy, until-

"Kame." He looked up nervously towards the Kazekage. "Haku is…" the elder man seemed to be at a loss for words. "She is so much better than I can remember her ever being under my efforts." Kame wanted to protest the self-deprecation, but bit his tongue when he remembered all that Haku had been through under Gaara. "I was failing, but you… aren't. You made a promise to me and it's clear that you're keeping it."

Kame nodded. "I just want what's best for her."

The curtain to the shop was swept open and he somehow knew who it was before the loud voices sounded out from behind him. "Why, hello there, young friend of Haku! And you, Gaara!" There was only one ninja he'd ever met who spoke with that much unnecessary energy.

Gaara seemed to have the opposite reaction as Kame, brightening up and turning to face Rock Lee. "Hello, Lee!"

Kame took the chance to excuse himself back to the inn, nodding to Sureki as he passed the other boy. _I like Haku, and I like these people, but… I'm too tired for this._

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry Files (Hidden Cloud) (Active Genin):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Genin Evaluation Data: Dako Nakimoka**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Able to use techniques fueled by_ [Redacted] _, granting him beyond jonin-level power in the case of_ [Redacted]

Genjutsu: C  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Able to break out of most genjutsu via_ [Redacted] _, but unskilled at casting them_

Taijutsu: A  
\- Jonin-Sensei (Torino Gurando) Notes: _Taijutsu amped in combat by_ [Redacted] _to at least jonin-level_

Appearance: _Age seventeen. Very tall height (6'3"), extremely muscular build, dark skin, pale hair and dark brown eyes. Wears forearm and shin protector armor plates over durable shinobi clothing and Cloud genin vest and headband._

Attitude: _Extremely low social interaction rate at Academy, initially believed to be due to_ [Redacted] _. Psychological analysis testing for possible sociopathy (See case of Gaara) came up negative, indicating behavior is simply due to a preference for solitude and silence. Despite this, is capable of getting along with near-anyone due to his muted personality._

History: _Chosen for_ [Redacted] _at a young age. Unlike typical_ [Redacted] _, childhood passed without incident, as did a year at the academy, after which he graduated. Performed well in his first year as a genin, but was moved from his team to a newly formed one in order to accommodate a problem child (Zandeina Ryukana). The next year spent on her team also passed without any incident or issues._


	20. The Nobleman

The arena was mostly the same when they returned, with the exception of- for some reason- Kenken's voice amplification jutsu, which had been cranked up significantly. The man himself was standing in the arena's center, two illusory screens above him showing the Hidden Leaf's symbol at the moment, and shouting (perhaps a bit _too_ loudly) "Welcome back your annual chunin exams!" The crowd tittered nervously. "And now, let's get right into today's matchups!

"From deserts of the Land of Wind, she's a master of dishing out the damage with her bare hands, the kunoichi who punched a hundred craters into the arena itself, who can move like the desert wind itself and strike like a bolt of lightning! You know her as the girl who took out the self-proclaimed 'prodigy of the Hidden Cloud' in a truly epic come-from-behind victory, the girl who beat the unbeatable prodigy of the Hyuga and master of the Gentle Fist with her own Brutal Fist, let's give it up for Haku, the Purple Fury of the Hidden Sand!"

As the crowd seemed to get into it, cheering her on as she stepped out onto the field, Kame heard Sureki sigh "Kenken-sensei, you're too much."

Oddly curious, he decided to push the subject- "What?"

Sureki blinked and then rolled his eyes. "Kenken-sensei told us that he bet the Lord Hokage on who exactly would make it into the finals, but if he won he'd be able to run them however he wanted. So now, we get... _this_ ," he finished, gesturing towards the huge screen of Haku's genin portrait flashing with the words "Purple Death" over and over.

However, out of that sequence of words, one thing in particular stuck out to Kame: "Your jonin-sensei is _running_ the tournament?"

"Yeah, I don't see why that'd be a problem," Sureki replied.

Kame honestly couldn't think of a response to that. _He can't see a problem with his own fucking personal teacher being the one in charge of fights between his team and other genin from different villages?_

His inner complaints of Leaf favoritism, which had died down somewhat after he'd been beaten so soundly by Naruko fair and square, had reignited, but were soon quenched once more by Kenken launching into his second overdramatic introduction: "And now, coming from the same deserts of the Land of Wind, it's the King of Quicksand, the Baron of the Badlands, the Harbinger of Hell! You know him from demolishing the invincible, untouchable Kosu of the Cloud, from destroying the stone-style prodigy of the Hidden Valley, please put your hands together for Tetsute Hasagi, the Sandstone Slayer of the Hidden Sand!" _So all the people who made it to the finals get flashy intros, huh?_

Tetsute stepped forward from his spot alone in the corner, moving towards the stairs, but Kame approached him. "Tetsute, don't…"

He turned, eyes angry. "What? Don't win?"

"No." That wasn't what Kame was afraid of. "Don't…" _How can I put this into words?_ "Don't just genju- no, that's not right. Don't make a sham out of this fight." _That's better._ "Haku worked just as hard, if not harder, than all of us to get this far, and if you devalue her accomplishment by-"

Tetsute brushed past him. "I don't have to listen to anything you say. And if you expect me to go _easy_ on her, well… weren't you the one who was accusing me of being too hard on her a few months ago?" He disappeared down the steps, leaving Kame to hope that the fight between Haku and the one who'd ruined her life didn't fall apart. _That's right_ , he realized, _Tetsute actually ruined her life, right from the moment where the village first cast her out up to the night where she tried to kill herself._ If Tetsute did win this fight and make it to the finals, then Kame had one more reason to be ashamed for losing to Naruko and missing the opportunity to face his old friend himself.

Shakily, Kame approached the balcony and watched as Haku and Tetsute made their way to the center of the field. Kenken had thrown up Tetsute's own genin profile image (which flashed periodically to stylized text reading _Sandstone Slayer_ ) and between the two illusory images there was a giant 'V.S.', as if the entire situation wasn't silly enough on its own. Haku reached her spot and stood there, looking better than she had earlier (but not completely fine). The night between the fights seemed to have been enough to almost completely replenish her energy, but her scrapes and bruises remained, as did the scuffs on her black leg warmers and clothing. Still, she wore an expression of intense focus, dropping into her taijutsu stance.

Tetsute also looked less exhausted than at the end of his last battle, but unlike Haku he still stooped a little bit from exhaustion and moved slower than normal. His face, though, wasn't set like hers was, instead twisted in some sort of indecision.

Finally, Kenken sumo-stomped between the two of them, lifted his arms above his head, and then swung them down, shouting, "Let the game begin!"

Immediately, with a surety that made Kame sick, Tetsute sneered and made the handsigns for his genjutsu: "Sleep."

Haku stood still, wavering in place... but did not fall, instead steadying herself with a new brand of fire in her eyes and a wide smile on her face. For the first time in her life, she had a defense against Tetsute's genjutsu, and it had come from a conversation between her and Kame the night prior, where he'd explained the auditory nature of the genjutsu and offered her a solution: earplugs, specifically the shinobi-quality type that blocked out any and all sound from one's ears.

"What the shit is this?" Tetsute narrowed his eyes. "Sleep."

Haku responded by cracking the faintest hint of a smile before dropping into her Desert Wind stance.

"Oh, boy," Tetsute sighed. "Finally figured out how to get around that genjutsu, huh? Only took you- what, three years? Gods, I bet you didn't even figure it out yourself, did you?" He turned back slightly towards the balcony: "She's still gonna lose, Kame!"

Unfortunately for him, the moment he took his eyes off of Haku she'd launched herself towards him, and by the time he brought his eyes back around her fist was only a foot away from breaking his face.

The split second was enough for him to shout "Substitution!" and reappear by the river, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders a bit. "Too slow, Kodoku."

Haku seemed to have a flash of worry cross her face before returning to a neutral, serious expression. _She's never been able to fight Tetsute before_ , Kame thought, _and she's probably still unsure even though she got past the genjutsu._ He wondered what it would be like to spend a childhood being trod upon by someone and finally getting a chance to fight back- all the books and movies would have him believe it was gratifying, but Haku actually seemed... scared.

"Earth Style: Crumble!" Tetsute slammed both hands to the ground in the textbook baseline jutsu of the Hidden Sand's so-called 'Sand Style'. The first step when fighting outside the Land of Wind was always to reduce the dirt or stone into much more malleable sand, which could then be used in- "Earth Style: Sandstone Spear!"

The long, pointed chunk of sandstone spun into being a few inches above the ground and then flew forward without warning, forcing Haku to dodge to her side to avoid being impaled. She started to move forward again, but Tetsute was already finished with another jutsu: "Earth Style: Sandstone Volley!"

Haku had to desperately reverse towards the treeline as a veritable sandstorm of swirling dust rose up around Tetsute and formed itself into what appeared to be arrowheads, each one launching directly towards her and forcing her to abandon all offense. She evaded two, slid down underneath another three, and just barely reached the treeline before a huge swarm of them came streaking into the forest. The tree trunk she'd hid behind was peppered with tens, maybe hundreds of the arrowheads as even more flew to the sides and kept her trapped in place.

It was a good fifteen seconds before the barrage slowed to a stop, Tetsute releasing the handsign he'd been holding and shaking his head. "Come out, Kodoku. No more Kame to hide behind."

In response, Haku darted deeper into the treeline, disappearing from Kame's sight- and apparently, also from Tetsute's, as the boy sighed and crossed his arms, relaxing into a more casual posture in his spot at the center of the arena. "Really? Hiding? That's the plan here? The fight's gotta end eventually, you realize?" There was no response. "Fine, if you're gonna _make_ me, then..." Tetsute made a few quick handsigns: "Fire Style: Flame Lance."

A searing line of fire came streaking forward from his hands and struck a tree in the rough center of the forest lining most of the edge of the arena, which immediately ignited. The blaze began spreading rapidly, during which time Tetsute simply stood there, waiting.

Kame watched the fire take tree after tree and worked his jaw in worry. _She's going to have to come out, right? Can she get through Tetsute's defenses? Maybe if she uses some of the higher breaths, but... she can't eat up too much of her chakra, she has to fight another round after this one_. His scanning eyes finally caught a flash of movement at the far edge of the forest, right where it met both the arena edge and the river portion. Haku was leaning back against a tree trunk, breathing heavily despite not doing much of anything so far through the fight.

In fact, she seemed to be unwilling to move even as the fire moved only a few trees away from her. Kame couldn't see her face, but he could read her body language enough- it was exactly the same as it had been before Tetsute had slept her back in the Hidden Sand: an unwillingness to fight back. _Is it too ingrained in her?_ The thought filled him with an impotent rage, the idea that she was finally able to fight back but couldn't due to having been unfairly beaten down so many times before.

"Come on Haku, kick his ass!" He'd intended to mutter it beneath his breath, but it came out as a full shout that reached across the arena to both combatants.

Tetsute was the one who reacted first, snapping his gaze up towards the genins' balcony with annoyance. "You know full well she can't, Kame. The genjutsu was just a way to put her down without being _too_ rough about it. You're just prolonging the suffering of someone who should _never_ have been a ninja- oh, speak of the devil!"

The last bit was said as Haku finally came tearing out from the treeline, shouting "First Heaven: Breath of Release!" as she visibly more than doubled in speed and ate up the distance to her foe in seconds, only-

"Earth Style: Quicksand Sea Jutsu!" Tetsute grinned widely as a wave rippled out from his hands across the ground and reduced it to a semi-liquid state, causing Haku to nearly lose her footing as she veered sharply- but there wasn't anywhere to flee _to_ , as the trees were already aflame. _Tetsute was planning this all along_ , Kame thought with no small amount of horror.

Haku had her back to the roaring flames of the treeline as well as only a few seconds before what little usable ground left in the area was rendered deadly, and once more her face regained the self-doubtfulness and fear, even as the roiling wave of quicksand came within meters of her feet, but as it raced forward towards the tips of her boots-

"Rolling Thunder!"

The crackle of electricity all over her body sent loose sand blowing back away from her, but more importantly- it froze up the sand at her feet and in a small area around her. While the rest of the wave continued as normal, encompassing nearly the entire arena except for Tetsute's island of regular sand at the center.

For his part, Tetsute seemed relatively unfazed. "Earth Style: Sandstone Spear!" _Shit, she can't dodge! What is she going to-_

Kame's worrying cut off as Haku pivoted on one foot and slammed a lightning-clad fist directly into the oncoming sandstone projectile and- either through raw force or through the lightning chakra coursing through her body- shattered it into harmless specks of sand that littered around her.

"Damn, you're lucky," Tetsute drawled, crossing his arms. "First you get someone to carry your dead weight through the academy graduations, and then Kame to keep you alive on missions and the first half of the chunin exams, and hell, now you're even lucky enough to have affinity with the one element that counters earth!" He rolled his eyes. "But the luck ends now. You can't nullify the area that's already been turned to quicksand, and you can't walk over to me, so... hit me with a jutsu, won't you?"

Haku bit her lip and, seemingly subconsciously, took a half-step back only to halt as her heel met with the hungry quicksand.

"Come on, do it!" Tetsute raised his hands to put them behind his head. "You know what? I'll even _let_ you. No defenses, no tricks, I won't even substitute out. Hit me with your best damn shot. The thing is, you _won't_ , because you've never been able to, because you don't have the guts to do anything but lie down and take it."

Kame ground his teeth, pissed beyond reason that Tetsute was doing this in front of a crowd of thousands. _It's not enough to win, he has to go out of his way to humiliate her..._

"Fine," Haku said, quiet enough that Kame barely heard it. "Second Heaven: Breath of Strength. Third Heaven: Breath of Speed."

 _Shit, she's only got... what, thirty seconds until that eats up her entire chakra pool? Not to mention the physical side effects._ Kame still couldn't see a way for her to walk or run across the divide between her and Tetsute, not to mention that she had an entire other match against whoever won the other semifinal round afterwards.

All of that was wiped from his mind as she shifted from her Rolling Thunder lightning stance towards something Kame didn't recognize, her eyes still trained dead ahead on an unmoved Tetsute.

"What, are you gonna punch really hard? Are you gonna use a jutsu to stretch your arm all the way- oh wait, you can't use jutsu, can you?" Tetsute sneered at her, leaning slightly forward with his hand on one knee as he continued "You know what, Kodoku? I gave you that nickname because nobody wanted you around, but I don't think it applies anymore now that you've started dragging down Kame and Miriki. I'm changing it to what you really are: Deadweight, a useless drain on-"

Haku launched herself forward with a single leap hard enough to cause the sand in a ten meter radius of her starting point to simply _implode_ , blasting up skyward even as she streaked through the air practically in a straight line towards Tetsute, who broke his own promise at the last second: "Earth Style: Sandstone Wall!" A meter-thick barricade of sandstone solidified-

And Haku ripped right through it, leading with a fist clad in the glowing white of her third breath, the crackling blue electricity of her lightning stance, and a darker purple aura that Kame recognized as her kekkeigenkai. She demolished the wall like it wasn't even there and knocked Tetsute backwards and off his feet as her fist sank directly into his chest.

For a fleeting moment Kame saw Tetsute falling diagonally backwards with Haku's fist planted right in his chest-

And then she finished the blow straight downwards, blasting him into the earth and sending up another meteoric crater of sand all around the impact.

 _Thoom_.

The strike created a storm of three kinds of chakra and sand that stormed out to fill damn near the entire arena and came roaring into both the observers' box and the stands themselves.

When the dust cleared, Haku was standing over the prone body of the boy who'd tormented her for so long, breathing heavily and obviously drained, but triumphant.

"Winner by a surprising, an out-of-nowhere, but most importantly, a _brutal_ knockout! The Purple Fury of the Hidden Sand! Haku!"

The crowd lost its collective mind, cheering easily twice as loudly as it had for any previous match even as the crackling lightning energy faded away and the sand began to rain its way back down onto the battlefield. Haku walked slowly back towards the genins' box, smiling a taxed and haggard smile but standing tall while Tetsute was loaded onto a medical stretcher by medic-nin and taken off for treatment.

Kame wasn't even sure what to say when Haku cleared the top of the stairs and shuffled up beside him , but all words froze in his mouth when she put her arm over his shoulder and leaned on him. _What?_ He shot a quick glance over at her face and she seemed even more tired than she'd been only seconds ago. _Was she putting on a tough act in front of the crowd?_

"Haku, are you… all right?" He tried to keep his voice down, but the worry seeped in.

"Yeah, I should… be okay…" She mumbled. "Shira said that… the breaths eat up… a lot of chakra…" _She seems exhausted,_ Kame thought. _Will she be able to fight… wait, her opponent is determined in this next match._ He looked up towards the arena just in time to watch Kenken start in on his next ridiculous introduction.

"And now, for the final battle of the semifinals, we have the ever-suave Miriki Kosuki of the Hidden Sand, who's made it through two full rounds without making a single attack. He tricked the Rakuyo Kuyanari, the sniper of the Hidden Sand, with a mind-bender so crazy it confused even most of the crowd, he outfoxed Dako Nakimoka, the silent giant of the Hidden Cloud, so completely that he won without even using a single bit of ninjutsu, genjutsu, _or_ taijutsu! Can he keep it up and rack up another win?" As Miriki sauntered out onto the field, half the crowd seemed to be cheering and the other half was silent or muttering.

"Or will it be our other competitor, from the Leaf side: the girl who destroyed the opposition-" Kame winced a little bit "-with fire and fury in both rounds leading up to this, who aced both previous stages of the exams and masters ninjutsu and genjutsu alike… the daughter of all four founding clans of the Hidden Leaf! She won her match against the Hidden Valley's Keikiro Torakku in a record-setting two-point-one seconds, she fooled the Hidden Sand's paperbomb prodigy Kame Hakiara so bad he was boxing with shadows for the entire match... ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the Red Death of the Hidden Leaf, Naruko Uchiha!"

The crowd went wild as she stalked out onto the field, making Kame just a little bit disgusted with the gathered shinobi and civilians.

The two shinobi stood facing each other in the middle of the arena, Miriki faintly smirking while Naruko was staring at him with derision. Kenken waited for the crowd to fall mostly silent, and then yelled, "Are you ready for the second-to-last battle of this year's chunin exams? Well, ready or not, here we go! Three! Two! One! Start!"

It took a few seconds after he set them off, and then Miriki activated hatogan and launched into his normal tactics. "Hey, Naruko. What's up? Feel like forfeiting?"

She responded with a shuriken whipped forward towards him that he barely dodged. "How about you?"

He made an unpleasant face. "Eh, not really. I think you should, though."

Another shuriken zipped towards him, but he dodged that one as well. "Why should I forfeit to you, loser?"

"Well, first off, I'm not a loser; I won every round leading up to here- if I'm a loser, then so are you-" he had to duck under another shuriken. "And secondly, if you forfeit now you save yourself a lot of embarrassment and time."

Naruko scowled. "Do you seriously think I'll fall for some stupid lie, like that Hidden Cloud idiot? How are you gonna beat me?"

Miriki shrugged. "I guess I'll just wing it? I don't know, things just kind of... work out for me usually." Naruko's hand refilled itself with shuriken, but he didn't flinch. "Besides, this whole thing would be a lot easier for both of us if you just… forfeited."

"Like I'm gonna forfeit to a weakling like you!" Naruko ran through the handsigns for the Fireball Jutsu, but Miriki was still unfazed.

"Weakling? I'm offended, but you know what?" She didn't answer. "At least I'm not an insufferable bitch like you are."

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" The flaming attack flew right past Miriki, and Kame briefly wondered if his teammate was onto something. _Is she so angry that her aim is taking a hit?_

"I can't understand why your teammates put up with your angry, insecure, angsty 'I-will-purge-the-world-of-weakness' act, but I could never deal with it for as long as I assume they have." Miriki shrugged. "I mean, the little effeminate one who just got whooped by Haku I kinda understand, he's got it bad for you-" she threw out another two shuriken, forcing him to dodge downwards. "-I don't blame him; at face value you're pretty appealing, but personality-wise I gotta give you a three out of ten."

"I don't care!" She ran through another set of signs. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!" The volley of smaller fireballs forced Miriki to roll backwards and dodge a few times, the last one clipping the edge of his cloak and singeing the white cloth.

"Oh, for the love of-" Miriki patted the burned area. "Really? You're taking your anger issues out on my coat now?"

Naruko raised a shuriken, but loosened up slightly before throwing it. "Oh, shut up, you annoying prick. Are you sure you even want to be a ninja? All you've done so far is bitch and moan and whine…"

Miriki actually _smiled_ , not a smirk or a patronizing grin, at her attempt at verbal sparring. "Ohh, that was a good attempt- but you're attacking the wrong way. Here, let me show you:" he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure _you_ want to be a ninja? All you've done is complain about the ninja world, and yet here you are trying your damnedest to earn your way into it!" She narrowed her eyes, but he wasn't done. "Wait- I just realized, there's a win-win solution to this!"

"What?" Naruko still held the shuriken, but seemed interested in what he had to say.

"Well, if you just forfeit-" Miriki was cut off when she growled and threw the shuriken at him, forcing him to roll to the side. When he stood, there was already a fireball jutsu headed straight for him. Even as he ran backwards, he was still complaining, "Are we seriously doing this? If you would just-" The fireball caught up to him just as he reached the river, but he dove under the waters and avoided being burned.

When he stood up from the water, he was dripping wet and looked annoyed about it. "Water Style: Condensation Jutsu!" The air around him misted up and then formed into droplets of water, which pattered to the ground. _Wait, did he just use a jutsu to dry his clothes off? Why would he waste time and chakra mastering something like that!?_ "Anyway, you almost managed to mess up my favorite coat, but…"

Naruko made the cross handsign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Four more of her filled the ground around her and then fanned out and began to rain shuriken at Miriki. For the first time since the match began, Miriki was forced to drop his cool-guy act and run along the riverbed towards the treeline. Somehow, he made it to the wooded forest and disappeared from view- although, his voice didn't stop coming. "Hey, can you stop attacking me like some rabid- oh, wait no, my bad. I forgot who I was talking to."

Naruko growled and unleashed a fireball into the trees, then another, methodically burning up patches of the forest. Miriki, seemingly unfazed, simply continued his verbal barrage. "So, anyway, I guess I'm gonna have to actually try this time, huh? What an absolute pain in the ass."

Naruko whirled around and narrowed her eyes as Miriki walked out from the treeline _behind_ her. _How did he get over there? Substitution, or-_ "You think a cheap illusion like that will fool me?"

Miriki came running forwards from the flaming patch of forest. "No, but it did protect me long enough to seal your fate. This is my ultimate jutsu; a kage-level technique that was used against Kaguya Otsutsuki by your grandfather when every other jutsu had failed." _What!? Since when does Miriki know kage-level offensive jutsu!?_ Kame was flabbergasted that his teammate had been concealing such a trump card from them the whole time.

Naruko entered a defensive stance. "I don't believe you."

Miriki grinned. "Maybe you will after I defeat you with it. Now, straight from the teachings of Naruto Uzumaki, here it comes!" _Will he succeed where I failed?_ "Sexy Jutsu: Reverse Harem Jutsu!"

Kame lost the ability to even think for a few seconds, every bit of mental space he had too busy registering what was happening on the battlefield. Miriki disappeared in a cloud of summoning smoke and then several idealized, glistening men clad in nothing but their underwear were rushing forward towards Naruko. As she fell backwards under the swarm of seductive male bodies, Kame finally regained his wits. _Miriki, you creepy, perverted, useless, pathetic… argh!_

Miriki himself stood back from the… _it's not really fighting, is it?_ Whatever it was, the Kosuki was grinning and standing with his hands behind his head, altogether _far_ too pleased with what was going on. _You idiot, you just molested another contestant in front of a crowd of thousands, and now you're just standing there looking all happy?_ The crowd in question seemed to regain their voices and began booing, which Miriki ignored.

What did pull his cocky head out of the clouds was the shriek of rage from behind him and then the mass puff that came from illusions being cleared out. "You think… I'm going to lose to… What is _wrong_ with you…" She was literally incoherent with rage and disgust.

He looked at her briefly and then nodded. "Again, I underestimated you. A mistake on my part, to be sure… but I won't make it again." He set himself in a solid stance for the first time so far in the match… no, the entire exams. "Perhaps this is what you were looking for instead?" _Wait, no-_ but it was too late, and now Miriki was masked behind an illusion of an idealized version of Sureki, with far more muscle mass and a confident expression on his face.

Naruko twitched in rage. "No, you perverted, unprofessional-"

"Ohhh… I get it now, you're into this." Another puff of smoke, and now he was an idealized Sureki far in the other direction, even more thin and feminine. He struck a pose slightly bent over, with one hand on his knee and the other one on his mouth, and winked at her. "Hey there, _mistress,_ how about we-"

Naruko seemed to have completely had enough. "That's enough!" She flared her eyes and ran through a new set of signs that Kame had only seen once before. "Wind Style: Inescapable Grasp Jutsu!" The burst of wind swept around Miriki… and completely ignored him.

"Hey, I think that might work better if you hit _me_ with it, rather than my illusion…" The 'illusory' Miriki from before waved at her, face nonplussed. "But, you know, that's just a suggestion. Take it or leave it."

She growled in rage and tossed a smokebomb at her feet, which spread out gradually across the clearing. After a little while, the smoke gradually cleared out- to reveal Naruko throwing a few kunai at him, which all missed. _What!?_ She flinched and put a hand to her mouth, saying, "Uck- what is this… oh, genjutsu." She straightened up and clearly shook off his taste alteration, then made a few signs.

Miriki had landed shakily and turned around to face her. "You're really dead set on attacking me, huh?"

"Yes, you moron, because this is the ninja world and-" She was cut off suddenly, backing away from him with eyes wide. "What!? You never… that's not… how…"

Miriki smirked. "What, surprised? I don't blame you, but please get over it soon. When I establish myself as the dominant Sharingan user of our generation, I want it to be against you in an even battle."

 _Sharingan!? How is he… wait, it's just another genjutsu, isn't it?_ Naruko, though, was backing away in horror. "I'm the one who has sharingan… you don't get…" She stumbled a little bit and then appeared to gather herself and draw her kunai. "I don't know how you got those eyes, but this is-"

Miriki smiled before raising a kunai in preparation to throw at her, to which she didn't react, apparently too caught up in what was ostensibly a hallucination he'd induced of himself with a Sharingan. "I really didn't want to have to do all this, but you wouldn't just forfeit, so…" he tossed it directly at her face and started to walk away. "It's your fault, I guess."

The knife sank right into Naruko's forehead- and then she disappeared into a puff of smoke. With a yell from the treeline of, "Wind Style: Inescapable Grasp Jutsu!" Miriki was yanked towards the real Naruko. She took a swing at him with her kunai hilt, and he managed to just barely duck underneath it- but failed to dodge the kick that planted in his midsection and knocked him backwards.

She ran through the Fireball Jutsu handsigns, but Miriki had already finished preparing his own jutsu: "Substitu…" he trailed off and then froze in place, before widening his eyes. _What's going on? Did she catch him in a genjutsu? He looks terrified…_ Miriki's face went from shock, to horror, to anger, and then- "You're not worth all this effort. I forfeit." _After all that? He's…_ Kame remembered his own surrender and shook his head. _I can't hold him to a higher standard than myself, can I? But still..._

Kenken accepted the words, but before saying anything he seemed to glance suspiciously towards the stands. "I… guess that means that Naruko Uchiha wins by concession!"

Naruko honestly looked as though she was going to finish her fireball right then and there, but gathered control over herself in time and simply stalked off towards the viewing area. _Miriki…_ Kame watched with a lot more empathy than he thought he'd have as his ever-cocky teammate hurried over to their box, illusion of invincibility shattered. _I actually thought that you were going to win… maybe that's the biggest illusion you pulled, and it got me along with everyone else._

When his black-haired teammate trudged up onto their level, he wore an expression of disgust more than anything. "Hey, everyone… Sorry."

Haku shook her head. "Don't apologize for trying your hardest."

Kame couldn't hold it back any longer. "But you didn't! Why did you just…" _I'm being a bad teammate._ He swallowed his anger, but snapped his eyes upward when Miriki responded.

"You're right, I didn't." Kame expected to see an expression of smug confidence, but instead Miriki was sorrowful more than anything else.

Kenken's voice came sounding out through the arena. "And with that, folks, we have our two competitors for the final match of the chunin exams! It'll be Haku, the Purple Death of the Hidden Sand, versus Naruko Uchiha, the Red Fury of the Hidden Leaf! Don't miss when these two duke it out in half an hour!" _So they give us a short break between the matches…_

A few minutes of small talk later, the passageway that led to the stands from the Sand area spat out several shinobi- "Master Kankuro!" Kame said with delight, just as Haku greeted Shira and Miriki welcomed Deihaka.

"So…" Kankuro narrowed his eyes. "Do you realize that when you use your puppet as a suicide bomber, it may as well just be a lump of useless wood?"

 _I knew he'd be angry about that…_ "Uh… Well, at the time it-"

"That said, you did do an admirable job managing Wasp yesterday." Kame let a little pride creep into his smile- "Until you blew it up."

Shira was congratulating Haku, who glowed with the praise. Kame remembered something he'd been wondering about and approached the strange pair. "Hey, Shira-san, Haku. That Seven Heavens technique… is it going to hurt Haku's chances in the finals?"

Shira shook his head. "No. We did some chakra network analysis, and… well, Haku isn't like most people. Her body is already used to chakra augmentation, and the seal keeps the exess chakra from overflowing into anything vital, so the physical side effects are... less pronounced." He seemed to think a moment, then said much more simply "I suppose we're talking bruised tissue instead of broken bones. However, the Breaths do eat up a _lot_ of chakra, and the real danger- at least for the first three- is her getting completely chakra exhausted." _So she needs chakra to fuel her taijutsu rather than ninjutsu or genjutsu._ "That said, she does have a surprisingly quick chakra recovery rate, so she should be close to alright in the finals."

Kame nodded, but Kankuro grabbed his arm and turned him around. "I wasn't finished speaking with you."

"Sorry, Master Kankuro." _I wonder if I'll ever stop annoying him…_

"Bah, just… anyway, I think that your idea of rigging Wasp to explode was going in the right direction. If we could arm the puppets with explosives, then…" The older jonin stopped and looked thoughtful.

Kame brightened up a little bit, thinking of the possibilities. "If we loaded them with a pile of paperbombs and then put a wheel at the top of the pile, then rolling it would push the papers forward one at at a time. We could spit them out in rapid succession like the needles!"

"Yes, but that would only for surprise attacks from above. The puppets can't very well fold the paperbombs into aerodynamic shapes like you do, so the attacks would be slow and only move downwards."

Kame remembered when enemies had used paperbombs against him. "What if we attached paperbombs to the heavier, single-use attacks, like Wasp's legs? That way, Wasp could have, say, four missiles to use in the fight, and since the legs can't be moved after being fired anyway…" _Then I would have to key a separate sign onto each of the paperbombs,_ he thought. _I think it's past time for me to start doing that, anyway… I can't be limited to one at a time of each bomb type._

Kankuro nodded sagely. "Okay, but then if- no, you could fix that easily. My question is, do you think your paperbombs could remain working when rolled tight?"

"As long as the seal remains undamaged, theoretically yes…" Kame realized where his mentor was going. "Oh, do you think we could make the needles into paperbomb-type weapons?" A nod. "Okay, but then I think I'd have to make them explode on a timer or impact-based system, because due to the rapid-fire nature of the needles a sign to make them explode would destroy all of the needles in the air." _The possibilities are endless._

"Of course." Kankuro quieted down as someone else approached from behind them. Kame peered over the man's shoulder and raised his eyebrows in surprise to see Sureki Hyuga make his way towards their group. He shot Miriki a dirty look (which was justified, given the way the Kosuki had made fun of him in the last fight) but walked straight over to Kame.

"Kame, I need to talk to you about something."

"Shoot." Kame was confused about what the white-clad boy could want with him.

"I…" Sureki dropped his voice to a near-whisper. "It's about Haku, so… with all these people around…?"

 _Did he see something in that last fight?_ "Uhm, sure." Kankuro remained, but when Sureki glanced at him he just crossed his arms and didn't move. Kame gave him an 'it's okay' nod and made an expectant face.

Sureki continued in the same near-whisper. "I saw your Kazekage yesterday, and… you know how most chakra is considered to be a blueish color?" Kame nodded. "Yeah, well the Kazekage had another color of chakra running through his gourd and super densely around his stomach- it reminds me of Lord Naruto's orange chakra from the ninetails."

Kankuro seemed to tighten up a little bit, speaking in a controlled and constricted voice. "Yes, yes, Gaara has the onetail sealed inside of him. Where are you going with this?"

The Hyuga genin, seemingly oblivious to his senior's discomfort, continued. "So, the… onetail chakra, it was more of a golden, yellowish color, right? When I fought Haku yesterday, I attacked her with a _lot_ of Gentle Fist strikes, and the chakra I attacked her with chipped away at the seal over her chakra points. The bits of the seal that-" Kankuro had his hand over Sureki's mouth almost instantly.

"You need to stop speaking, now. You're _very_ close to breaking some very huge rules." While not outright angry, Kame's mentor's expression was annoyed as he interrupted the Leaf genin. _Is he worried about Sureki spreading the information that Haku is a jinchuriki?_ "I recommend that you drop this subject and don't bring it up again, understood?"

Sureki frowned but nodded, and Kankuro removed his hand. "Okay."

At that moment, a small flash of white caught Kame's eye. He glanced over and saw the Kosuki man from a few days before approach Miriki. "That was the last of your little... _fights_ , yes? Aren't you about finished here? I'd prefer to leave this place as soon as possible."

"Yeah, sorry Ginsenbo, but I'm gonna stay here and watch the final… feel free to go back to your mansion and shove the silver spoon back up your ass, though. I'll manage without your stuck-up whining somehow." Miriki looked at his relative with naked distaste.

The older Kosuki twitched his nose in disgust and flashed his eyes. The hatogan spun into being within them, but his hatogan had _seven_ points. He did something that caused Miriki to flinch defensively. "I will remind you to watch your tongue, cousin. I would have thought that the ending of your last match would be enough to keep you complacent, but…" _What? Did he interfere with the fight?_

Miriki growled but dropped his eyes. "My apologies, Ginsenbo. I will remain and watch the next match, and return to the Sand with my team. You may come with us or return on your own, whichever you'd prefer."

Ginsenbo whirled around and glided off. "Your parents and I will expect you back soon. We have found a suitable heir for you to court, despite your… lack of decorum." As the man's white robe disappeared into the passageway, the Kosuki clan's crest (a blue-pupiled eye staring directly forward) was swallowed up by the darkness.

Then Kenken's amplified voice came screaming out from the arena. "Only five minutes until you all get to witness the fight of your lives! That's fight, the greatest young ninja the Hidden Sand and Hidden Leaf have to offer will duke it out right before your eyes in only five minutes!"

Somehow, that statement finally broke whatever mental repression Kame had put in place and he helplessly walked over towards Haku. She looked up with a smile as he approached but it turned to a frown as he stopped, unable to force a smile in return. "Haku, you…" _She can't win against Naruko._ "Will you… forfeit, before she…"

Haku's expression changed to one of discontent. "I won't just give up when you and all the others put your faith in me. You all gave it- gave _me_ \- your trust, and I'm not going to be the failure that you taught me I wasn't."

Kame could only see the figure of Naruko standing over him, over Keikiro, over Miriki, ready to burn them all to ash to fulfill her ambitions. _She won't hesitate to hurt Haku, and worse… Haku can't stop her. If she gets hit by any genjutsu, she's done for._ "I believe in you, but…" _You can't let her get hurt._ "You can't win this fight. She's too strong, and you don't have any jutsu to use against her- you can't escape any of her genjutsu." He saw Haku grow more and more hurt as he continued, but sure in his purpose of trying to protect her from getting injured before a huge crowd, he carried on. _She won't forfeit,_ he thought. _Even if things are bad and she can't win, she won't surrender._ "With your seal you... you can't... you're crippled in the exact wrong way to deal with someone like her."

Kame realized he'd gone too far as she flushed and turned away from him, walking off towards the stairs that led down into the arena. _I shouldn't have said that._ He remembered Tetsute saying that against any real ninja, she'd be helpless. _Why did I…_ He cursed himself for hurting her after all his promises to help her. _Those were all just empty words, huh?_

He was left to just watch as she walked out onto the field to stand opposite the Uchiha that had eliminated both of her teammates. Kenken eyed both of them, and then shouted (loud enough to make Kame wince) "It started with ninety-nine genin from all over the world, and now we're down to the two strongest! Who will walk away from this tournament as the victor of the chunin exams!? Will it be the Purple Fury of the Hidden Sand, or the Red Death of the Hidden Leaf!?" _Is it just me, or did he swap their titles?_ "We'll find out now! Three! Two! One! Let the final match of the chunin exams… begin!"

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry (Civilian Surveillance) (Land of Wind):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Noteworthy Civilian Surveillance Data: Ginsenbo Kosuki**

Ninjutsu: F  
\- Agent (Genku Kuyanari) Notes: _No formal ninjutsu training on record, no capabilities demonstrated_

Genjutsu: D  
\- Agent (Genku Kuyanari) Notes: _Clan's 'hatogan' kekkeigenkai enables minor, mostly negligible effects._

Taijutsu: F  
\- Agent (Genku Kuyanari) Notes: _No formal taijutsu training on record, no capabilities demonstrated_

Appearance: _Age nineteen. Above-average height (6'1"), below-average weight (141 lbs), graceful, delicate build, black hair and blue eyes. Highly groomed appearance, typically wears expensive civilian nobleman's clothing beneath white coat with clan crest._

Attitude: _Law-abiding, holds proper respect for shinobi leadership, treats civilians no better or worse than majority of noblemen. Loyal to village and seeks economic and political gain for its sake whenever possible._

History: _Born to a side branch of the Kosuki clan but has moved to claim apparent favor over the current heir (Miriki Kosuki) for reasons unknown._ _In tradition with majority of clan, opted to ignore shinobi training to pursue a more political route. Currently a l_ _eader in the community both politically and economically, has argued many a trade agreement or business consolidation despite young age.  
_ \- Agent (Genku Kuyanari) Notes: _Appears to be a normal, law-abiding citizen. Perhaps surveillance unnecessary?_


	21. The Monster

Naruko started the match without words, instead launching a fireball right off the bat. Haku dodged it with a quick roll, only to look up and see a shuriken flying towards her, forcing her to duck and go off-balance. Another shuriken towards the mid-dodge Haku drew blood, clipping her forearm and sending a small streak of red into the air. _It's like my match,_ Kame thought. _Naruko isn't giving her any time to think or plan._

Haku looked forward and then visibly flinched at the last second, flinging her head to the side quickly to avoid meeting her opponent's eyes. The Uchiha girl took advantage of the momentary distraction, running through a set of signs and then shouting, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!"

The blasts of fire flew towards Haku, but she managed to evade them all without making any errors and then backed away. _Good move. If her plan is to dodge, then distance between them will make it a lot easier._ Naruko came to the same conclusion and began stalking forward- which was exactly what Haku had been waiting for. The purple-clad kunoichi tore forward from a standstill and closed the distance in mere moments, swinging up a fist that met with thin air- "Substitution!" Naruko stood by the river, the stone that she'd swapped with dropping the the ground. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Another burst of flames flew forward across the arena, singeing the ground as it traveled, but Haku saw it in time to leap aside.

 _Naruko must have extreme amounts of chakra,_ Kame considered. _She's been throwing out jutsu like shuriken, even high-cost ones like the Shadow Clone Jutsu. I suppose she does have some Uzumaki blood, so that may contribute to it… but that can't be all. Did she inherit some of the ninetails' chakra stores?_ She was tracking Haku with her eyes, launching another volley of kunai. Once again, Haku rolled aside to avoid the knives, and the stalemate dragged on.

Suddenly, Naruko spoke, dropping her combat stance for the moment. "What drives you?" _What is she talking about?_ Kame remembered himself asking a similar question the night before, but this was hardly a place for that discussion- _Is she pulling a page from Miriki's book? Trying to knock Haku off of her game?_ "You're not a weakling like the other two in your team. I respect that you've gone this long through the exam without using a single jutsu- if you're trying to prove dominance, you're succeeding." _Wait, she's making the same assumption as Zandeina._ Kame wondered why she would do that when she had a jutsu-less ninja in her own village.

Haku didn't leave her ready stance. "They aren't weaklings. Kame and Miriki don't deserve the hatred you've directed towards them." Naruko raised her eyebrows bemusedly. "I don't know what you've been through, or what you're thinking, but whatever it is doesn't give you the right to do the things you've done."

"I'm a ninja from the Leaf. You're a ninja from the Sand. Why do I owe you any fucking _mercy_? My strength as a shinobi gives me the right to do the things I've done!" Naruko was angry in her response. "Are you seriously telling me that, with the all the power you have, you're walking down the road of the losers?"

"My strength comes from the faith that the others put in me." Haku sounded less sure of herself than before, and Kame knew why. _I shouldn't have told her to give up._ "I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for their efforts."

"You sound like my damn grandfather," Naruko seethed. "'Power in unity' is bullshit. Strength in numbers may be great and all, but in the face of a real enemy or out there in the field, relying on your teammates is a crutch!"

Haku shook her head. "After all that Naruto Uzumaki did to end the war and hate in our world, you want it to come back." Despite the words leaving her mouth, her voice lacked conviction.

"The hate is still there!" Naruko growled angrily. "Pretending it's gone means _nothing_."

Haku visibly wavered. "No, it- it isn't…" she trailed off. _She knows that it's still there, because she's felt it herself._

The Leaf kunoichi noticed her opponent's indecision and seized upon it. "When the enemies come for Kame, or Miriki, will their complaints help them? Will the fact that _if_ their friends were there, they'd work well together, help them?" She glared towards the Sand box. "They're weaklings, who forfeited rather than take a few hits and don't deserve the name shinobi. We're not like they are, and as long as they're around they're dragging _us_ down with them."

"Kame is not weak!" Haku found her voice again. "You may have won against him, but he is not weak. He's stronger than I am, and I didn't drag him down; he dragged me up!" Kame felt... strange, hearing her actually say the words out loud. _Even after what I just said, she still has faith in me, is grateful to me._

Naruko frowned. "I don't understand, if you're _as strong_ as them without even using… wait…" she widened her eyes. "Medical ninjutsu is far enough along that even people with underdeveloped chakra coils can use jutsu, so I assumed… but somehow, you _still_ managed to get crippled?" She sounded angry, _very_ angry, at being made a fool. "I guess this is gonna suck for you, then!"

Haku flinched at nothing and then wobbled a little bit, sinking to one knee. _Shit! Did she accidentally look into Naruko's eyes and get hit with the paralysis!?_ "What…" _No, she can still move, so…_

"This vertigo genjutsu is transmitted on my voice," Naruko said while flashing through the handsigns for the Fireball Jutsu. "Honestly, it's usually not even worth the chakra, since most ninja can just release it pretty easily. But you…" she sighed. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

The huge spray of flame tore forward and Haku stumbled to the side, throwing herself out of the way but landing in a heap. _She can't use genjutsu release to get out,_ Kame realized. _What's she going to do? Is the rest of the fight gonna be in this state?_ Haku stumbled to her feet, nearly falling back over again, and then shuffled back towards the forest, taking a shuriken to the back of the arm but managing to avoid the rest of Naruko's barrage. _Can she… wait, if she hurts herself she might be able to escape it… but then she'd just hear Naruko's voice and be back in the same boat._

Naruko called out towards the forest, "Hey, hiding won't save you. To think you made it this far through the tournament without any jutsu… but this is the end of your streak of luck. Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" A barrage of fireballs flew into the trees, spreading flames into the forest at equal intervals. In minutes, there would be no forest left to hide in.

"First Heaven: Breath of Restraint!" Haku came sprinting in from the treeline, rapidly eating up the distance between her and Naruko. Naruko seemed to focus on something briefly and then panic when it didn't work, jumping backwards and throwing a few shuriken at the charging enemy. The projectiles were simply batted aside as Haku continued her rush and made it to Naruko, unleashing an uppercut that smashed into the Uchiha's jaw- and then continued upwards, shattering the large stone that was in Naruko's place.

Naruko, having again substituted next to the river, shouted angrily: "Covered up your ears? Clever, but you still can't hit me. Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Looking at Haku, Kame could see that she did have her headband uncharacteristically wrapped around her head rather than her neck, holding in shreds of her bandages that were stuffed in her ears. _She blocked off her ears and then hurt herself, breaking the genjutsu and stopping it from catching her again… clever._

The fireball flew towards Haku, but with her senses back she dodged around it and kept charging towards her foe. Naruko turned and fled, calling out, "Wind Style: Wind Cushion Jutsu!" The burst of air pushed her forward faster than her legs could carry her and she hit the ground running in a full sprint towards the treeline.

Haku yelled, "Second Heaven: Breath of Strength!" as she made it to the river, and then started laying waste to the rocks. _She's destroying the Substitution Jutsu targets,_ Kame thought. _Taking away another one of Naruko's options._ However, it seemed that the Leaf genin wasn't going to just let her do it, as another fireball came flying in from the trees. Haku dodged it, hopping towards the left and out of the way, but right then _another_ fireball appeared, heading straight for her.

 _What!?_ Kame barely had time to register as the first fireball poofed out of existence- _An illusory fireball, and then another real one after the target dodges the first one._ Haku was caught in the blast of flame and cried out in pain as the fire enveloped her. When the smoke cleared, she was diving down towards the water and managed to extinguish herself by rolling through it, coming out of the roll in a ready position. However, her stance couldn't hide the fact that she had burns on her stomach, thighs, and forearms, and was shaking slightly from pain.

Naruko sauntered out of the forest twirling a kunai. "Come on, is that really it? You're right, Kame _is_ stronger than you if that's all you-" She was cut off as Haku came charging forward towards her, moving in an arc that kept the dark-haired girl's back to the treeline. "Oh, you still got some fight left in you… but you won't after _this_!" She moved forward to meet Haku in taijutsu, swinging the kunai forward towards her, but Haku wasn't dodging at all…

In fact, the Sand girl simply tore right through Naruko like she wasn't there- which, she wasn't. The illusion fell apart and Haku went straight into the trees, forcing Naruko to leap out towards the river. She landed, grimaced, and then ran through the handsigns for the Fireball Jutsu- but froze up and actually yelped in pain, shuddering violently. It wasn't until Kame heard the crackle of electricity that he realized what had happened.

Haku charged again, now from the patch of river that disappeared into the forest. Lightning crackled around her, more viciously than he'd seen it ever before (perhaps due to the first and second breaths), and conducted through the river to keep Naruko off-balance. Naruko was immobilized, unable to properly respond, and as Haku charged her she desperately reached for her weapon- but not in time, and Haku's enhanced fist struck her straight to the gut and sent her flying up into the air. The purple-haired girl blurred up next to her and spun, bringing her leg axing down in initiation for another chain of lightning-empowered strikes.

Unable to substitute out, Naruko bore the full brunt of the first attack. Kame saw her pounded hard by a lightning-enhanced leg and sent flying downwards- but something went wrong. A blast of orange chakra and killing intent sent Haku darting back, and instead of completing the finisher technique she fell back and watched as Naruko landed controlledly. _That's not…_ Naruko narrowed her eyes in rage and the ground around her began to fragment apart. _How is she…_ "I won't let the Leaf lose... _I will not let you win_!"

 _What is this power?_ She strode forward faster and faster, crumbling the ground underneath her feet, and the orange chakra billowed off of her violently. _Is she… a jinchuriki? But how!?_ Her voice was chillingly calm even as she closed the gap with powerful strides: "So this is the power of the ninetails… you don't stand a chance now."

Haku, instead of fleeing, actually charged as well, shouting her own threat. "Third Heaven: Breath of Speed! Ninetails or not, you won't-"

Then she stopped moving, and the ninetails chakra vanished, as did the cracks in the ground and all of the oppressive killing intent. Naruko was staring straight at her, smirking as she walked up. "You fell for my genjutsu, and then you looked into my eyes. Now, how about a taste of another one!" _She can make illusions convincing enough to have killing intent and leaving cracks in the ground? This is bad, Haku lost her lightning stance when she got immobilized…_ Naruko reached forward and grabbed Haku's arm, then backed away. "Shadow Clone Jutsu! Substitution Jutsu!" She used the two jutsu in combination to get back across the arena in the nick of time as she apparently blinked and Haku regained her ability to move.

However, despite having the glowing eyes and shimmering aura of the third breath still active, something was wrong with her- she was moving far slower than the was before, still faster than a normal human but nowhere near where she'd been. Naruko was almost amused as she kept up the distance between them far more easily, even throwing out a shuriken that Haku barely dodged. "This genjutsu requires touch but speeds up the target's perception of time. Not that you can hear me, with your ears blocked up, but I think the crowd should know why the best that the Hidden Sand has to offer is moving like a slug." She threw another two shuriken, and Haku reacted a split-second too late, getting clipped by the metal projectiles.

"Now, I haven't used these guys since the tournament started and they'll get cranky if I don't use them at least once, so…" She bit her thumb, made a few signs, and then slammed her hand to the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!" A huge cloud of smoke billowed out into the air before her, and then cleared to reveal a massive purple snake, thicker than a tree trunk and hundreds of feet long.

"Naruko-sama, how may I be of service?" it hissed in a surprisingly human voice.

"Nagaida, we have to crush this genin in order for me to win the chunin exams." Naruko was standing on its head, pointing at Haku. "She's already slowed down by my genjutsu, so this should be easy."

"Yes, Naruko-sama…" The snake's head rose into the air slowly, in the controlled manner of predators that have already narrowed down their prey. Haku lowered herself into a defensive stance, but she was clearly still affected by the slowing genjutsu and was unlikely to be able to dodge the snake's attack. After a brief moment of stillness, Nagaida's head shot forward, but moments before its attack landed Haku jumped _forward_ towards it.

Its jaws snapped shut, but before it could swallow or move back, it shuddered violently. "What is-" Naruko was unable to finish her question as she was knocked backwards when Nagaida's jaws flew open and, in a crunch of shattered bone, Haku punched open its fangs and stepped out. She was bleeding heavily from one leg and covered in the snake's saliva, but alive and moving with her full speed again. _That's clever,_ Kame thought, _she moved forward into the bite to minimize the damage and then the pain of having her leg bitten shook her out of the disabling genjutsu._

Nagaida shuddered as it rose back up into the air, but Haku didn't let it go far. She dashed forward and slammed a fist directly into the snake's stomach, then when it bent over she landed an uppercut into its jaw that sent another couple of bone fragments flying from its mouth. The huge snake visibly wavered and then wordlessly disappeared in a puff of smoke, presumably returning to the Ryuchi Cave.

Naruko growled as she landed, throwing a fireball at Haku that was easily evaded. Haku closed the distance and swung a fist forward so quickly that she seemed to simply blink up next to the tree that the Uchiha was next to and shatter it instantly. _Naruko can't fight her with taijutsu in this state. One solid hit, and it's over_. Naruko rolled backwards and made a few signs, but as she came up into a crouch Haku was already standing behind her and grabbed her by the back of her clothing.

She turned with the opponent in hand and then threw her up into the air, winding up her fist in the same move she'd used to put down two other contestants. _Is this it? Sureki got put down by this move in a third gate state, so if she hits Naruko with a Desert Burial I think she's done for._ Haku spun, bringing around an arm, and then seemed to falter and weakly launched Naruko towards the ground, failing to finish the final blow. _Oh, no…_ Kame could see the smoke that most chakra constructs left behind drifting off of her skin. _Did she seriously run out now?_

Still, Naruko hit the earth _hard_ and Haku darted beside her to swing out a leg, catching the Leaf girl in the midriff even as her muscles shrank and her skin lost color. Naruko went flying and a last-minute Wind Cushion Jutsu was barely enough to soften her impact against the arena wall. Haku completely lost her aura, now standing weakly with both arms hanging at her sides. The burns that Kame had briefly forgotten were now ugly and raw, and the cuts she'd taken over the course of the match were bloodied. _She looks so tired… but, if Naruko doesn't-_

As if to spit in his face, Naruko chose to stand up at that moment, looking equally hurt after significantly less hits. The way she was favoring one side reminded Kame of his own stance after breaking a rib on his first mission, and she coughed a blood spatter onto her shirtfront. Glancing down at the dark red stain on the light red clothing, the Leaf kunoichi laughed. "Huh, out of everyone in the tournament, the jutsu-less one ends up being the only person to draw my blood. Still…" She flicked her eyes up to Haku, who appeared to also be looking at the bloodstain. "This match is over. Sharingan Secret Art: Blood Vengeance."

Haku froze up. _What? Does she have another line of defense?_ Kame rocked backwards in shock. _Another ace in the hole that she held in reserve this whole time!? I've never heard of that jutsu before…_ Naruko sagged backwards to lean on the wall. "You looked at my blood, which is enough to catch you in this genjutsu I invented. Now, have fun running through all your shittiest memories, starting with the bad ones and getting worse and worse until you've re-experienced all the pain in your life."

 _She's… she's not ending the match…_ Kame growled in anger, tightening his hands on the railing. _This girl is putting Haku through mental torment when she could just end it here and now._ _This is just like what happened to Keikiro._

 _Haku…_ Kame looked towards the field in helpless horror. His teammate had dropped to her knees, gazing up into nothingness and not moving. _What are you seeing? The townspeople hating you? Tetsute and Rakuyo-_ "Mother… Father…" Haku's voice, while weak, drifted over just loud enough for Kame to hear. _What!? Gaara said she had no memories… Hold on, could this jutsu even be dragging back memories that she repressed? Is she seeing when her clan was wiped out?_

Kame remembered, for some reason, Sureki's attempted words from the day before. _He said he saw Gaara's chakra color, and then made a non-sequitur transition to Haku's seal… wait…_ Kankuro had never left the little viewing area, and Kame whirled around to face the older man. "Kankuro," he said, forgoing the 'Master' title in his intensity, "Tell me the truth. Was it Gaara who destroyed Haku's chakra network?"

Kankuro's face hardened. "I can't tell-"

"I don't care if it's an S-class secret, just answer me!" Kame's eyes blazed at the thought of the only person who'd watched over Haku at all being the same one who destroyed her dreams.

Kankuro took a deep breath, glancing around at everyone near them, before grunting in submission and nodding, lowering his voice to a near-whisper. "Yes."

Part of Kame reeled at the news, but before he could let himself succumb to the thoughts racing through his mind he forced himself to ask again. "Then was Gaara also the one who blocked off her memories?"

"Yes." Kankuro's tone got more aggressive, as though he was gearing up to defend his brother.

Kame started to ask again, but a sudden wave of killing intent from the arena caused him to flinch and turn to see what was happening. Haku was on her knees, head in her hands, with the cloth over her shoulder blades ripped open and revealing a complex sealing mark that was glowing slightly and emitting a dark mist. _Is this… the tentail's power? But how could… is her rage weakening the seal?_

In his morbid curiosity, though, one more question entered his mind and he asked it before he could think about the repercussions. "Did the Hidden Sand kill her family?"

Kankuro's face lost its defensiveness, and turned somber. "I can't..."

"Yes, you can- no, you _have_ to." Kame wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Kame, you don't want to know, trust me on this." Kankuro wore an expression of helpless regret.

"Look, I'm pretty sure I already know the answer from how dodgy you're being, but I'm going to ask one more time." Kame felt his faith in the Hidden Sand, already shaken loose by a number of recent revelations, waver in the balance. "Did. The. Sand. Wipe. Out. Haku's. Clan?" After a long, long silence, Kankuro responded without meeting his eyes.

"No, we didn't wipe her clan out. _She_ did."

As the words left his mouth, Haku started a scream that turned into an unearthly wail, and Kame felt the killing intent multiply again and again until he was all but paralyzed. He forced an unresponsive neck to turn and look at the battlefield, where Haku was no longer… Haku. She was standing on two crouched legs, her arms held defensively and ending in long, clawed hands. Her entire body was cloaked in purple chakra and the very air itself around her seemed to be warping inwards and growing darker, her face was unrecognizable through the swirling chakra. Behind her, there were two tails slowly floating in the air, with a third one emerging to join them.

 _Is that really Haku?_ _Is she still in there, or does the tentails have control?_ The tormented sound quieted to a stop, leaving the arena strangely quiet… and then two eyes opened, revealing twin red half-moon shapes that glared towards Naruko.

Then, faster than she'd been before, faster than Kame could see, the creature that Haku had become was standing before Naruko and swinging an arm forward. Proctor Kenken somehow warped the weakened Uchiha over to him, shouting, "Everyone, please leave the arena in a calm and orderly fashion!" The crowd murmured and then roared, a mass exodus of people fleeing the monstrosity in the ring.

Haku's swing had hit the wall and destroyed a three-meter-wide chunk of it, with more crumbling away by the second. She turned around and made another screeching noise, then flashed forward towards the two other shinobi left in the arena. "Earth Style: Catapult Launch Jutsu!" Kenken yelled, and he and Naruko were sent flying just before Haku's next strike created a barren crater out of where they'd been standing. _Can I call her Haku, anymore? She's given in completely to the tentails…_

The tentails opened a mouth gap in its face and roared, but the chakra that built up there seemed to just dissipate instead of blasting forward. This only made it _more_ angry, but by then several shinobi of various villages were coming down into the ring to join in the efforts to subdue it. It turned slowly, seemingly taking in the various shinobi and jutsu being mobilized, and then disappeared from sight and reappeared behind the midair Kenken. The leaf jonin threw Naruko towards the stands at the last minute, trying to shield himself from the attack that was coming-

But instead of following through, the tentails turned to track Naruko with its one eye and then streaked over to her. _One attack from that thing, and she's done for… I have to help… but what if Haku's still in there and I hurt her?_ Kame remained frozen in place, but others didn't. Kakuzen made a bridge of wood leading up towards where Naruko was falling, which Gunaji and Sagino ran up. The tentails raised its arm to swing at Naruko, but Gunaji arrived to grab and move her while Sagino took on a stone shell and braced to block the blow.

But as soon as the rocky defense appeared, it simply faded away when the tentails opened its mouth wide and inhaled. Sagino seemed to start to collapse as a stream of blueish chakra was yanked from her into the tentails' body, but before she could fall over the arm ripped over through the air and landed a brutal hit directly to her side.

Her body was sent hurtling out into the arena, but Kame could tell she was dead from way her side had caved in and the sheer amount of blood. The shock of watching someone he knew executed so mercilessly forced the emotions out of his mind and left only a strangely calm and logical voice.

 _Sagino is dead,_ he thought. _Haku is lost somewhere inside of that tentails form, which none of us genin stand a chance against._ He watched impassively as the genin up in on the wooden tendril came running or falling down to the arena floor, watched Gunaji collapse over his dead sister's body. Watched Naruko stumble among them and then twist in fear as the tentails landed beside their group, the sheer force of its arrival knocking them back. Kakuzen forcibly pulled Gunaji back away from the monster. _Good plan,_ Kame contemplated, _there's no way that any of the genin here stand a chance against Haku in this state_. _Maybe some of the jonin, and most likely the Kage, are our best hope. Judging from that roar earlier, the tentails can't use mass area attacks. Numbers could work… no, weaker ninja grouping up won't help things, since jutsu seem to be ineffective. The Kage need to get involved._

For the moment, they seemed to be still in their box for some reason. The gathered jonin, mostly Leaf but a scattering of members from other villages, engaged on the tentails, raining projectile attacks upon it. The hail of kunai and shuriken seemed to actually hit it, eliciting a roar of anger, but then all the attacks in the air and any shinobi too close to the tentails were knocked back as a wave of dark energy rolled outward. _Huh, there's four tails now,_ Kame thought. _That's probably not good._

As the fourth tail emerged, the tentails emitted a thick black mist, blocking any sight of it. The unnatural fog swirled around but stayed in that central area, with none of the ninja willing to approach it… and then, a patch of the fog whisked outwards, deceptively peaceful, as a dark form tore out from the cloud and blurred into visibility in a spot occupied by one of the ninja and clutching said ninja in a huge claw.

Kame, still in his stunned state, could only mentally state facts. _It's larger now, maybe ten feet tall, but it's hard to tell when it's hunched over the way it is. The arms are longer, as long as the body, and the hands are stretched out into claws- those are probably deadly. There's no aura anymore, just a dark form of black and purple with the one red eye. Haku's completely gone, isn't she?_

The man trapped in its claws screamed and struggled, and a few ninjutsu were fired off against the tentails, but each one in turn was simply swallowed up into its maw. It held out the arm, and the captured shinobi's chakra seemed to drain out of him, swirling up his body and into the tentails' clawed hand. _I remember when I looked into tailed beasts… they were said to be heartless monsters, but later proved to have personalities. That's why there was a period of jinchuriki being outlawed, only later being altered to biju choosing their jinchuriki. However… whatever Haku has become, it doesn't seem to have any objective other than killing._

The man's cries of pain choked off and he slumped in the tentails' grip. It dropped him onto the earth of the arena, then stomped down where his body lay- but he was gone, whisked away by a patch of sand. _Oh, looks like the Kage are finally entering the fray._ He remembered the theoretical battles and matchups he'd enjoyed setting up as a child. _The Raikage, Hokage, Mizukage, Kazekage, and Kawakage against the tentails jinchuriki. Who would win?_

"Haku! Stop this, now!" Gaara had the tone of an angry parent, not the authoritative voice of a Kazekage. "You have to reassert control over the tentails, before it's too late!" The tentails tilted its head confusedly, then thrust an open palm forward… but nothing happened. In a small bit of humor, it turned to stare at its hand, shook it a few times, and then thrust it forth… but again, nothing happened. _Is it trying to use some sort of jutsu?_

Gaara laid two open palms flat on the earth, turning it to sand, and then straightened up as platforms of the newly made sand lifted all the shinobi combatants out of the arena. "Haku! You have to snap out of it! I'm sorry about your family, and I can never apologize enough for what I did to-" He had to stop talking and drop straight down as the tentails' fist blasted into the space where his head had occupied, going straight through his rock-hard sand shield.

It screeched as it fell down after him, smashing into the ground hard enough to throw up a huge cloud of dust. When the haze cleared, the tentails, now with a fifth tail extended, seemed to open its mouth wide and inhale into the air. All of the Kazekage's sand lost its power and streams of blue chakra funneled into the tentails' mouth, including a thick one that came from Gaara's chest. _It's getting stronger with each succesive tail,_ Kame noted.

Gaara staggered backwards and then attempted to reconnect with the sand, but in the moment of vulnerability as he bent over to touch the ground the tentails was already upon him. Gaara threw up a shield of sand that was ineffective, and the huge claw swung straight into his body, crushing his midsection almost completely. Somehow, the sight of the monster killing Gaara snapped Kame out of the haze he'd been thrust into after watching Sagino's death, and he felt… too many intense emotions to keep track. Terror _of_ Haku, terror _for_ Haku, rage towards the Kazekage, fear for the Kazekage…

But the claw kept going all the way through Gaara's body, and then he crumbled into sand. _A sand clone!_ Hope returned to Kame's heart as the real Gaara floated down from the stands, with Naruto and Sasuke to his sides. The Raikage, Mizukage, and Kawakage were nowhere to be seen, but… with Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara's efforts combined, the tentails stood no chance. _Haku stands no chance,_ Kame realized. _That's her in there. They might kill her to protect the Leaf village._

A glimmer of light brought his eyes back down to the field, where the tentails had raised an arm towards its three opponents. The space before its open palm had a tiny, yet incredibly bright light in it, which grew slightly with each second until it was in a line- no, a crack. _Is… the seal breaking?_ The crack opened wider and wider, until there was a veritable spiderweb of glowing lines, and then…

The space simply exploded, and a massive burst of pure power, light and heat beyond anything Kame had ever seen, blazed into existence in a cone going upwards. _How… the tentails is so powerful… wait, Gaara!_ That attack had been aimed to hit where the three shinobi were standing, and as the blast of energy had completely destroyed a huge chunk of the arena. A small wisp of smoke… _that's chakra-construct smoke,_ Kame realized. _They were shadow clones!?_

"I can't believe that you hid this from me, Gaara." Naruto's voice came from the high and off to the left of the arena. When Kame looked up, he saw the Seventh Hokage standing at the edge of the stands, looking down at the tentails. He glowed with orange energy that Kame dimly remembered as being his cloak made of the ninetails' chakra, a spinning orb of white chakra held in his right hand.

"I can't believe I never found it out." Sasuke said, opposite to his old rival and standing off to the right. He had his Rinnegan out in full force and chidori crackling.

"I'm sorry." Gaara floated high above them. "But right now, the tentails is here in the Leaf, and five tails out already… we can't let this go on." He waved a hand and the sand on the arena floor shifted, coming in to pile around the tentails' legs. "Solid Sand!" Kame, who'd grown up in the desert, recognized the sand becoming sandstone and hardening. The tentails shifted a little bit, obviously without much effort, but the sand held firm. "Can you two end... can..." Gaara trailed off. "We can't let her go any further, but... try not to kill her."

"Agreed." Naruto's orange chakra blazed bright as he and Sasuke dropped into charging stances. In a burst of speed, the two ninja darted down their respective walls, seemingly confusing the tentails. It crouched in the same spot as they approached rapidly. _But they intend to attack it with ninjutsu? Why…_ Kame noticed that they held their jutsu behind them, keeping their bodies between their weapons and the tentails. _So far, this thing has only shown the ability to consume things directly in front of it, and even then only in a small area, so if they only bring the offensive jutsu around at the last moment, then maybe…_

They neared it, legendary offensive jutsu coming from both sides, and Kame involuntarily twitched forward in… Fear? Anticipation? But as they flashed in the final few meters, he felt only remorse for the mistakes he'd made that had landed Haku in this mess.

"Chidori!"

"Rasenshuriken!"

After a flash of light that forced Kame to look away, the arena was left completely silent. He turned back slowly, afraid of the image of Haku's lifeless body being left there between the two heroes of his childhood.

What he actually saw somehow filled him with even more horror than that. That sardonic, emotionless corner of his mind chuckled a little bit at the fact that he couldn't have been more wrong. A seven-tailed monstrosity stood between the two ninja, five meters tall and with elongated clawed hands reaching out far enough to force the two men back. A wide area of the air around it had faded, losing its color- and so had Naruto and Sasuke, who darted back as little more than blurs until they stopped each a good distance away from the monstrosity.

The tentails was unharmed, even as the last traces of the twin attacks swirled away into its body and an eight tail began to emerge.

"Well, shit," Naruto muttered. "Ideas?"

"We need to seal it," Sasuke sighed. "I can use the Human Path to remove her soul, but..."

"Don't," Gaara whispered. "It's not fair, she's only a child-"

He was broken off when the tentails all but disappeared from its spot on the ground, leaving behind a crater wide enough to shatter the entire battleground of the arena, and ripped through his midair position in a streak of purple energy that left behind only fragments of sand. Kame thought he'd been removed from existence entirely until he saw another huge swath of the arena's wall obliterated by the tentails slamming Gaara's body into it, freezing for a moment as both normal blue and the onetails' golden-yellow chakra streamed out from the Kazekage's body and into its own.

"Gaara!" Naruto shouted, flashing in to rescue his fellow Kage but losing the orange glow of the ninetails' chakra where his arm reached out. By the time his hand had touched the tentails' back, it was reduced to a normal human fist, unaided by even the simple chakra amplification that most ninja used subconsciously.

The tentails roared and swung back with a vicious backhand that sent the man flying off through the gap in the arena wall that its earlier blast had created, letting Gaara fall to the ground in the process but soon following him down and rearing back to deliver what would likely be a killing blow to him. It was only then, moments before watching his idol be killed, that Kame finally found his voice:

"Haku, stop!"

Two fractured white eyes and a twisted crack of a mouth turned to peer directly at him, and he froze- _I'm dead._

But before he could find out whether that prediction would come to pass, the Kawakage appeared behind the tentails and, before it could even begin to react, slammed an open palm into its back- "Domination!"

In the space of a single moment, every trace of the monster disappeared, seemingly drawn away into the Kawakage's palm in a display eerily similar to the tentails' own eating of the various jutsu used against it. The beast faded away, leaving only the girl within, who dropped down to the ground unconscious at the unharmed Kage's feet.

_What... how did he... even Naruto and Gaara and Sasuke couldn't..._

The Kawakage simply straightened up, glanced down at Haku just once, and then walked away.

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry (Sitting Kage) (Hidden Valley):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Kage Threat Assessment: Kawakage  
** \- Agent (Omura Riko) Notes: _True name unknown_

Ninjutsu: S  
\- Agent (Omura Riko) Notes: _Flawless combat record, lethal at all ranges, no record of damage suffered_

Genjutsu: ?  
\- Agent (Omura Riko) Notes: _Never witnessed use of genjutsu, no records found_

Taijutsu: ?  
\- Agent (Omura Riko) Notes: _Never witnessed use of taijutsu, no records found_

Appearance: _Age unknown. Tall height (Approx. 6'2"),_ _athletic build, white hair and eyes, only ever seen clad in white-and-green Kawakage's robes with attached hat and face mask._

Attitude: _Apparent pacifist for all intents and purposes. With one significant exception (see Heat Devil Village), has avoided offensive war as much as possible._

History: _Has ostensibly led the Village Hidden in the Valleys for multiple centuries (possibly multiple individuals passing down title without publicizing death and subsequent transfer of power). Nevertheless, holds an ironclad defensive record and avoided major participation in the majority of major and minor shinobi wars throughout history. After Kazekage Capture Incident, brought under scrutiny for possible collusion with Akatsuki but subsequently pardoned. Joined Shinobi Union in 21 A4, has since displayed no signs of disloyalty.  
_ \- Agent (Omura Riko) Notes: _Unlikely to betray Shinobi Union given behavioral tendencies and track record_


	22. Practicality

"I say we execute the girl now." Despite the brutal words coming from his mouth, the Sixth Raikage Shiryu was lying back in his chair and spoke in a mellow voice. "She's clearly unstable, and we can't just sedate her forever."

Deihaka coughed a few times from his position standing behind Gaara. They were at a meeting between the five Kage who had been present for the final stage of the chunin exams. _Although… there are a lot of extra people here._ Kame guessed that Gaara had asked to bring along Deihaka and Kame to speak their part, but old habits died hard and the other Kage got suspicious. They must have reached a resolution where each Kage was allowed to bring along exactly one genin and one jonin, a ridiculous situation that ended up with quite a few unnecessary people crowding the room.

Naruto sat in his chair, Naruko to his right and Kenken to his left. Shiryu had brought Zandeina and a man who was ostensibly her jonin-sensei Gurando. The Mizukage Korekuta, a casually confident young-looking man with red-brown hair and brilliant green eyes, was flanked by a bored-looking genin and a jonin in the round lightning bolt mask of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen's Kiba. Finally, the Kawakage had brought along a devastated-looking Gunaji and Senshiko, filling out the fifteen total people arranged around the meeting table.

When nobody objected, Deihaka responded to the Raikage's statement. "Haku was put through a ninju- I mean, a tai- I mean, uh, a _genjutsu_ that unsealed memories that she didn't even know she had." Were Kame less shell-shocked, he might have had more mental energy to respond to the fact that his sensei had slipped right back into his shittiest habit. "She basically, uh, did the killing her entire clan for the first time- and none of any of you can tell me you'd be okay after doin' that..."

Shirui wasn't backing down. "Look, I understand that you're worried about losing your second jinchuriki. Shukaku is the weakest of the biju and your village is the most secluded, so the Sand has historically been the weakest Hidden Village-"

"Hey!" Deihaka interjected annoyedly.

"Okay, the weakest of the five _important_ Hidden Villages-"

"Hey!" Now it was Senshiko's turn to interject.

The Raikage grimaced. "Fine, fine. Now that the Cloud, Stone and Mist have two jinchuriki each I understand that you feel a rush to gain your own strength, but creating a monstrosity like her…"

Gaara grunted in annoyance. "We didn't create her." _So at least he was telling the truth about that,_ Kame thought cynically. "She arrived at our village terrified and alone, with the tentails' power seeping out of her. I…" he looked down at the table, voice finally getting some emotion. "I decided to completely and irreversibly seal away her chakra network, as well as her memories of her clan."

Naruto frowned. "Why didn't you train her instead of destroying her chakra network? Her power wouldn't have been-"

"Outside of the question of whether that would even be possible? Because of this very situation!" Gaara interrupted his old friend with a frustrated tone. "I knew that if I publicly had and trained a tentails jinchuriki, the other Kage- you all- would have protested and fought and I'd end up in this exact meeting attempting to protect her from being murdered in the name of 'peace'."

 _At least the Raikage is honest enough to not deny it,_ Kame thought. Naruto was also wearing a troubled look, while the Kawakage was completely unreadable behind his large hat and cloth face-cover with small eyeholes. However, Gunaji broke the silence without the same indecision present on many of the older shinobi at the table: "That doesn't matter now! My sister is dead because Haku is a dangerous, broken weapon. If she went on a mission and that happened, who would protect the civilians?"

The Mizukage, Korekuta, nodded. "She has no control over it."

Surprisingly, it was Naruko who spoke in support of Haku. "Neither Naruto nor Gaara had any control over their tailed beasts at first, and now they're Kage. Can't we just… I don't know, train her?" _Why is she doing this?_ Kame was taken aback by the previously confrontational Naruko's support for Haku. _What does she have to gain from it?_ "My grandfather, the Seventh Hokage, managed to befriend _all_ of the tailed beasts. I'm sure that he could train Haku to manage the tentails." _Oh, so that's her game. She wants a powerful jinchuriki for the Hidden Leaf._

"Absolutely not." The Raikage crossed his arms. "I will not allow the Leaf to have the ninetails _and_ the tentails within its walls."

The Kawakage sounded more curious than anything when he finally spoke. "Then who do you propose should keep her?"

Kame couldn't take it anymore. "Why are you all talking about her like she's property to be owned and bargained for? She's my friend, a shinobi with her own hopes and dreams, and for you all to…" He trailed off, highly aware of the fact that most of the room's occupants were staring at him.

Deihaka smoothly picked up where he'd left off. "I think what my genin is driving at is that she has spent a large part of her life in the Hidden Sand and should remain there."

The Kawakage cocked his head. "I actually propose that she return to the Village Hidden in the Valleys." This statement was met with several noises of confusion and mostly just blank looks. "Now, hear me out: We are a minor village with no standing feuds with any of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, but an ironclad defensive record that proves we can keep her safe from those who prize her. You are all from villages with long, sordid histories filled with war and hate, and I don't think you can be trusted to not weaponize a tentails jinchuriki with the Yorutsume kekkegenkai."

Naruto and Darui both flinched back, visibly surprised by the news about Haku's clan. After that, the meeting dragged for nearly an hour of the same, repetitive crap: most of the Kage doing their best to politically claim Haku, the genin whining about their feuds with her, and the jonin staying mostly out of it. By the end of it, there was clearly no way for the villages to reach a conclusion, and the conversation took a new turn:

"We have to just execute her. None of the villages can have her, and if she's left to wander alone she'll get snatched up by either a village or a missing-ninja." The Raikage delivered the statement in a matter-of-fact voice.

"She doesn't deserve to die, and if-" Gaara crossed his arms.

"Well, neither did Sagino!" Gunaji exploded angrily, "and neither do you or Naruto or Sasuke, but that monster would have killed all three of you."

Gaara turned towards the Valley genin apologetically. " _I_ wanted to kill everyone around me, but Naruto showed me the light. In time, I was even able to bond with my tailed beast, and I want Haku to-"

Naruto grunted uncomfortably. "Gaara, I…" he trailed off, putting an arm behind his head. "I've spoken with the tailed beasts, and they all have minds and feelings; they can be befriended. But the tentails… it's not like them. It's a hungry force of nature that wants nothing other than to consume all of the chakra in the world."

Gaara turned his head quickly towards Naruto. "But up until yesterday, she wasn't a problem. If we can just-"

Now it was the Kawakage's turn to interrupt. "If it happened once, it can happen again- in fact, at the mere sight of those memories, she broke. The memory erasure jutsu only works to block off _all_ of a person's memories, so will you just erase her entire life up until this point? Or are you telling me that you expect her to live every day from now on with those same memories in her mind and not lose control."

Gaara, beleaguered, moved once more to face the Kawakage. "We will find a way. I won't allow an innocent genin to be executed. Haku has done-"

Gunaji spoke over him _again_. "She killed my sister!"

The Kazekage opened his mouth to reply, but closed it. Finally, he seemed to decide on how to respond. "It was the tentails that killed your sister. Haku is an innocent girl whose only crime was being born to the wrong parents at the wrong time."

"Like so many other dead in the shinobi world." The jonin beside the Mizukage spoke in a somber tone. "We've finally found a hard-won peace, and I don't think the life of one girl is any reason to give it up."

The Kawakage nodded wisely. "A small price to pay."

"But there doesn't have to be a price!" Kame was completely flabbergasted at the level of sheer stubbornness of the ninja before him. "Haku doesn't need to be owned, and she doesn't need to be murdered! So what if one village is stronger than the others? Can't you all just sit down at this table and agree not to attack each other!?"

The grim Mist jonin chuckled behind his expressionless mask. "You have no understanding of the things you suggest. Such agreements have been made before, and they always fall apart as time passes. The next generation may grow further apart, and then their successors will lose the bonds completely. What then? With no friendship, what stops shinobi from setting upon each other with every weapon they have?"

No one answered, so the man continued. "The balance of power. Mutually assured destruction. When the villages are equal in strength, each will not dare attack any other for fear of their own annihilation. It must be maintained, even with those you dislike, because without it we risk repeating the mistakes of all those who came before us."

Naruto seemed particularly out of it after that speech. _His answer to the question of how to change the shinobi world was friendship and forgiveness… but friendship and forgiveness aren't enough._ Kame could see his indecision plain on his features.

The Kawakage broke the ensuing silence. "We've deliberated enough. Let's vote." _No…_ Kame knew what was coming, but couldn't stop it. "All Kage in favor of ending the jinhuriki's life?"

The Raikage and Mizukage both raised their hands. _Wait, so it's a tie. Where do we go from…_ Kame's thoughts ground to a halt as the Kawakage's hand slowly drifted up into the air. _No, no, I... I thought…_ Kame's mind raced, searching for something, anything he could do to prevent the events in front of him from unfolding.

In desperation, he turned towards Gaara and Naruto, waiting for either of his heroes to do something. To stand up to the other three, to go to war if that was what it took- but for the first time, when he looked at the twin jinchuriki Kage of the golden age, he didn't see infallible heroes. He saw two old, tired men.

The Raikage, bastard that he was, sounded _satisfied_ when he clapped his hands together and spoke: "Then it's decided. We'll carry out the..."

Kame didn't hear the rest because he stormed out of the room, completely disgusted with every person inside it. He was so angry that as he left the Hokage's tower and leaped to a nearby rooftop, he completely failed to notice the man standing on it, waiting for him.

"Hello there, Kame." A raspy, drawn-out voice sounded out from behind him, and he whirled around to see a man dressed in a yellow and green robe with a huge purple rope tied around his waist. As the man strode closer, Kame got a better look at his pale-white skin, his slit-pupiled eyes, and long, black hair.

 _I know this man. I've read his name a hundred times._ "Orochimaru." _Honestly, I should probably either be calling ANBU or running away, but… I'm in a strange state right now. Plus, if he wanted me dead I'd probably be dead already._ Kame remembered all too well the incident three years ago, where the newly-legitimate Hidden Sound had been wiped out completely in a betrayal by Orochimaru- their own Otokage."How and why are you inside this village? And why do you know my name?"

Orochimaru's face didn't change, smiling the same dead grin. "This is peacetime, the village's borders may as well be wide open for all the Leaf is defending them. I'm in here to take something I want, and I know your name because one of my underlings mentioned you."

 _Sankuryu._ "Why are you speaking to me?"

"Because I have a… proposition… for you." The Sannin's voice fluctuated around the word 'proposition'. _Whatever it is, it's going to come at a terrible cost,_ Kame reminded himself. _The history books are littered with people that Orochimaru has used up and left behind._ "I have an enemy that has a vested interest in obtaining the Yorutsume girl; therefore I have a vested interest in recruiting her, and you, to serve under me."

Kame didn't respond and Orochimaru kept speaking. "She is unique, of course, but from what I've seen so are you." _What? I don't have any kekkegenkai, and my family line isn't particularly impressive… what is he talking about?_ "You chafe under the restrictions of the shinobi system, don't you? You see the people walking around you and curse them for their hypocrisy and lies."

 _I do…_ Kame snapped himself out of the strangely hypnotic effect of Orochimaru's voice. "I do, but I think my reasons and yours are very different."

"Ah, but our goals are the same- to get the girl out of this village and out from the shinobi system." Orochimaru paused. "She is… important to you, and important to me as well."

 _Oh, no… does he want her body as…?_ Feeling unusually bold, Kame responded to the Sannin's unspoken meaning. "If you want Haku's body, the answer is already-"

"No, I don't want her body. That accursed seal has mangled her chakra points beyond repair. A pity, because the thought of having both the tentails _and_ Yorutsume kekkegenkai is certainly… tantalizing…" He licked his lips with an inhumanly long tongue. "But no, my objectives are more mundane than you assume. I know that the five Kage have sentenced her to die tonight." _I was there when they did it, but…_ Kame still winced hearing it out loud.

"I see a powerful, unique ninja who has been cast out by the ninja world, and has nowhere to go. You call her a friend, yes?" He didn't wait for Kame to answer. "I think that your _friendship_ will drive you to save her, even if it means losing your own status as a Sand Shinobi."

Kame's mind raced, processing this new path. _He's asking me to betray my village. I can't…_ his gut instinct was violent and negative, a product of the mindset pushed onto every single academy student. To betray the village wasn't just evil, wasn't _bad_ , it was just something that was never to be done, something unthinkable. _I can't do it._ "I won't…"

His voice failed him as his mind dragged him back to the interrogation after his first mission. _Deep down, I don't love the Sand… I honestly answered that I cared more about Haku than them. Can I really lie to myself any longer?_ He opened his mouth, but stopped when he realized that he genuinely didn't know which answer he'd give. _Haku, or the Sand? All my dreams of becoming a legendary, well-respected shinobi, or…_ Kame remembered another thought from that night at the interrogation chamber. _Loyalty to morals, or loyalty to village? Which one do the great-_

Then he thought of the decisions three Kage had made prior that very night, and the cowardice the other two had exhibited, and realized that perhaps following in the footsteps of great shinobi wasn't the path he wanted to walk. A final memory entered his mind, of his promise to Gaara: 'I swear to save Haku.'

"I'll do it." He looked into the eyes of Orochimaru. "I'll join you if it means I can save Haku."

"Excellent…" Orochimaru's eyes brightened up with a strangely _possessive_ glimmer. "The hospital is better-guarded than the gates, but this is the Hidden Leaf- if you walk in with stories about wanting to see your 'friend' one more time, they'll yield." Orochimaru had a strange way of saying the word 'friend', as though it were from another language and he had to concentrate on his pronunciation. He held out a hand with two small white squares stacked atop one another. "These two pieces of paper are marked with a reverse-summoning jutsu. Five seconds after they are split apart, the people touching them will be teleported out of the Leaf."

Kame nodded, keeping those instructions in his head. Now that he'd chosen his course, he retreated into his impassive state of mind. Things were much easier to deal with when he could simply ignore all the emotionally-wrought indecisiveness. _Split the pieces of paper apart, hold one and touch the other one to Haku within five seconds. Wait…_ "Orochimaru, how do I know that these tags aren't a trap?"

The man was already gone. _I guess… if I don't do it, Haku is definitely dead. But if I do go through with it, there's still a chance._ Kame went to the hospital to pack his things, thankfully avoiding running into anyone he knew, then headed straight for the hospital in a haze. _I won't let Haku die._ There were several guards in the lobby and scattered around the hospital, but evidently they hadn't been ordered to stop random Suna genin. However, as he asked for Haku's room number, the woman at the front desk gave him a suspicious look.

"Please, ma'am… she's my teammate, and I just want to see her…" Kame banked on the woman either not knowing about the execution, or assuming that _he_ didn't and taking pity on him. He didn't know which one it turned out to be, but it didn't matter- she gave him the number and he moved on.

After descending to a sub-level without anyone challenging him and making it to the mouth of the correct hallway, the first roadblock appeared: two leaf chunin who stood in his path. "Sorry, kid, but I think you got turned around- wait, you're a Suna kid."

Kame scanned the two of them; while only chunin-rank they were fairly old for shinobi. He opted to play into their expectations and act like an inexperienced kid, making a pleading face and fiddling nervously with his hands. "Oh, sorry… I just, wanted to say goodbye, you know? We're leaving tonight, but sensei said that Haku would have to stay behind to get treated…" _This story also explains why I have a packed bag._

The two chunin shared a look of 'oh, boy…'. Kame knew how they'd think: they didn't want to have to break the news to the oblivious child, and their job was to watch for intruders. Some kid who didn't even know that the execution was going to happen obviously wasn't a threat, so… "Alright, kid, she's right down the hall."

Kame brushed by them without thanks, looking ahead to see what the next hurdle would be: One female Leaf jonin standing in front of the doorway of the room. The kunoichi, a Hyuga, had the Byakugan active and stared him down as he approached. _How do I play this one? I don't think she'll fall for the 'idiot kid' act. In fact, she probably knows exactly who I am, so my only option is to try to win her over as myself._

He stepped before the door, but the Hyuga kunoichi moved an arm into his path. "No visitors are permitted at this time, by order of the Hokage."

Kame looked up into her eyes. "I want to see my teammate one last time before she _dies_ by order of the Hokage."

The kunoichi flinched, but swallowed and maintained composure. "I'm afraid that my orders explicitly prevent me from allowing you into her room."

"And do you agree with them?" Kame looked straight into her pale eyes.

"What?"

"Your orders. Do you agree with them? Do you, personally, feel as though I should be barred from seeing my unconscious friend one final time before she gets murdered?"

The woman flushed. "Whether I agree with them has nothing to do with my carrying them out to the fullest of my ability."

"Do you think that-"

"Enough." A familiar voice trailed out from within the room, and the Leaf jonin quickly moved out of the way. The door was opened from the inside to reveal Gaara, looking more tired and defeated than Kame had ever seen him. "Hanari, thank you for your diligence, but I actually wish to speak to Kame inside the room."

The Hyuga actually looked relieved as she allowed Kame to step through the doorway. Inside the hospital room there were only the bare necessities, a small table with a scattering of objects on it and a few chairs, as well as the bed in which Haku lay.

At the sight of her, Kame's wavering heart realigned itself. She looked so peaceful lying there, a seal drawn on her forehead that would keep her asleep. Her purple hair lay scattered about on the pillow, but-

"Kame." Gaara's voice was as depressed as his expression.

"Kazekage." Kame turned to face his superior, doing his best not to reach towards the pocket in which he stored the two pieces of paper. Looking into the blue eyes of the Hidden Sand's leader, he couldn't muster the rage that he'd assumed would come. _I don't hate him,_ Kame realized. _I think he's made terrible mistakes, and I despise that he caved in to the other Kage to let Haku die, but… at the end of the day, he tried to help her._

"Kame, you have a packed bag and you're coming to Haku hours before she's slated to be…" he trailed off, seemingly unable to say it out loud. "I don't know what you're planning, but…"

Kame considered his situation. _I have to take a risk, but which one? Either I tell him I'm leaving, or I try to sneak out the reverse-summoning paper without him noticing._ After a few seconds, he decided to go with the option that didn't involve trying to fool a Kage-level ninja. "I was offered a way out from the Hidden Leaf, and I'm taking Haku with me."

Gaara's expression went from despair to worry and he turned away from Kame, looking out the window for long seconds. Eventually, he visibly reached a decision and faced back towards the genin. "I came here to dissuade you from taking that very course of action." Kame dropped his head in frustration. _Okay, now I have to-_ "But… who am I kidding. I can't stop you from doing something that I would be doing if I weren't the Kazekage. I can't- no, I _won't_ stop one of my shinobi from saving a friend from an undeserved death. I can't encourage you, but… I won't stop you. However, be warned: I can't pardon you anytime in the near future, and if Haku comes to the Hidden Sand I can't allow her entry, understood?"

Kame's throat was a little bit raw as he fully considered what was ahead of him. _My mom and dad… I might not see them for a long time. Deihaka-sensei, Miriki, Gaara, Kankuro, everyone… can I really just…_ He turned to see Haku lying on the bed. _I might not see them for a long time, but Haku doesn't deserve to never see them again, ever._ "I swore an oath to protect her, and I'm not going back on it."

Gaara's face lost much of its sadness. "Thank you for acting when I could not."

Kame tried to keep it together long enough to say his last goodbyes. "Lord Kazekage, could I ask… will you tell Deihaka-sensei and my parents that I'm sorry, and that I hope to see them again?" Gaara nodded. "And tell Miriki that I'm going to… miss him…" _I really am, huh? As annoying as he is, I…_ "And tell Master Kankuro that I'll keep up my exercises while I'm gone."

Gaara bowed his head in agreement, and Kame swallowed, taking one last look at the Kazekage as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the two papers. He rubbed the seal off of Haku's forehead, although she still wouldn't wake up for a while yet, and then yanked the cards apart and placed one on Haku's forehead where the seal had been.

"Kame?" Gaara was smiling, now, despite an insurmountable mournfulness lying just underneath. As Kame felt the jutsu take hold and lost sensation through his body, he was left with a few final words: "Thank you."

* * *

**Shinobi Union Registry (Active Jonin) (Hidden Mist):**

**Date: 50 A4**

**Annual Jonin Evaluation Data: Kiba Nakani**

Ninjutsu: A  
\- Commander (Kubikiri Hozuki) Notes: _Mastery of_ [Redacted] _makes speed unmatched. Great skill with Lightning Style techniques._

Genjutsu: B  
\- Commander (Kubikiri Hozuki) Notes: _Average jonin-level genjutsu skills._

Taijutsu: A  
\- Commander (Kubikiri Hozuki) Notes: _Wielder of Lightning Fangs. Extremely skilled in swordsmanship, exceptional speed, above-average durability and strength._

Appearance: _Age fifty-five. Average height (5'10"), aging but still athletic build, white hair and yellow eyes. Teeth sharpened as per standard of Seven Swordsmen members, wears mask with yellow lightning symbol. Typically clad in standard Mist shinobi combat gear with minimalist armor for forearms and shins. Bearer of Fangs, keeps them attached to back of Mist jonin vest._

Attitude: _Extremely effective and reliable ninja, by all appearances a textbook-perfect shinobi. Holds an impressive missions success record and no record of deviant behavior outside of instances in which he was asked to disobey Shinobi Union guidelines, indicating possible loyalty to Shinobi Union over loyalty to village._

History: _Both parents lost to the Fourth Shinobi World War, raised as a war orphan in the Hidden Mist and excelled beyond peers to claim not only accolades but also the honor of wielding a pair of the Hidden Mist's Seven Swords, Fangs._ _Owned and used them for years before t_ _he official reformation of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, retained them when brought to the group. Extremely high mission success rate, without any fluctuation based on mission difficulty._


End file.
